Not Quite The Knight In Shining Armour
by Kshetra
Summary: Pre HBPWhen Hermione Granger is saved from a rather unpleasant future, her hero is none other than a very,very relucant Draco Malfoy.
1. Astronimical Problems

**CHAPTER 1 **

**ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEMS **

Draco Malfoy walked quickly along the chaos filled corridors of Hogwarts. As he picked his way slowly through the increasing pile of dead bodies of both Death Eaters and students, he tried very hard not to recognize anyone.

_Susan bones_… _Hillary_… His mind, however, involuntarily registered their names.

Half an hour ago, the Death eaters had attacked, and to Draco's surprise the battle was still raging. He clutched the pack of cards in his pocket as he climbed up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower. He was a boy on the run and the pack of cards was his only hope.

As he rounded on the last flight of steps that led to the Astronomy Tower, he stopped. In the pale moonlight streaming in through the window, he saw a hunched figure, down on all fours, feeding on a barely alive first year Ravenclaw student. Draco clutched the Lycanthe that hung from his chain and sprang at the werewolf. Before the creature could react, he had plunged the Lycanthe into its back; with a piecing howl, the werewolf fell dead.

_Always be prepared…_ The words of his father came rushing back into his head. The Lyncathe had been a present from his father on his fifteenth birthday; for Draco, now sixteen, it seemed a long time ago.

"C'mon mudblood filth there is no escape from us," said Goyle, trying to look menacing with a broken jaw.

"Yeah," said Crabbe nursing his black eye. "Give up, you don't even have your wand," he taunted.

Hermione Granger, top student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, desperately looked around for another way of escape from the small room, other than going through the two thick-headed hulks that stood near the door. A table strewn with astronomical equipment separated her from them.

Her hands were raised in fists, in perfect imitation of muggle boxers and to the surprise of both Crabbe and Goyle, she seemed quite adept at using them.

_Where are Harry and Ron?_ She thought desperately.

She had been in the library, studying for the test that was due in two weeks, when she had first heard the alarms. She remembered running out of the library into the Great Hall where she was met with a scene of death, destruction and fire. She remembered taking out her wand and trying to make it to the Gryffindor common room, when she had run into Crabbe and Goyle.

It had been Crabbe who had snatched her wand from her unsuspecting hand and snapped it in half. And it was Goyle who had carried her kicking and screaming up to the Astronomy Tower.

She had, at first, thought that they were doing it on the orders of the Death eaters and it somehow was connected to Harry; the real reason why they had done this became very clear after they had arrived at the Astronomy Tower. They had thought it would be easy to scare her a bit, a sort of revenge for all the hexes the trio had put on them. Of course, they had not been prepared to deal with her fists. But Hermione knew that she wasn't safe and the only reason that the hulks were hurt was because she had had the element of surprise on her side. She knew she didn't stand a chance against them and she needed help quick.

"Help," whispered the bleeding Ravenclaw boy as he flung his hands out to catch Draco's cloak as the Slytherin tried to make his way up the stairs.

"Get off," shouted Draco, kicking the flailing hands of the boy away from his robes. "If you try to bite me, I'll use the Lyncathe on you, you werewolf," he said viciously.

Draco ignored the boy's pleas and sobs as he made his way to the Astronomy Tower's storeroom. As he turned the handle to the door he couldn't help smirking at the thought that the boy had actually thought that he, Draco Malfoy, would help him.

As Hermione heard the door open, she allowed herself to fantasize, for a second, that it was Harry or Ron coming to her rescue. However, when the smirking blonde haired boy made his appearance, she felt that her only hope was to make a bolt for the door. She had quickly realized that all three Slytherins were rather surprised to see each other.

One second, he was staring at the surprise filled faces of Crabbe and Goyle; next second, he had his hands full trying to prevent a vigorously clawing brown creature from getting to the door.

"Argh," he cried as it bit him and he flung it reflexively across the room.

As the creature hit the wall and landed on the ground in a crumpled heap, he suddenly realized that it was a _she_ in the tattered cloak and that _she_ also happened to be _Hermione Granger_. Looking into the hatred filled rather teary eyes of Granger and then at the confused uneasy faces of his friends, he couldn't help but mutter to himself… _this just isn't my day._

"What did you think you were doing?" asked Draco, his hands folded across his chest.

Crabbe and Goyle stood before him, shuffling uncomfortably.

"Umm Draco we… we thought we could have some fun with her, you know curse her and …stuff," Goyle said spluttering over the sentence.

Goyle went on with his defense but Draco wasn't listening. He had to make a decision.

_Maybe I should tell them to find another room, no… too suspicious, maybe I should stun them all, but they'll tell when they wake up, what if I leave Granger somewhere? Damn it_.

He cleared his mind fast enough to hear Goyle finish, saying, "…we didn't think you would be int …interested."

"Not int. … interested?" he said mimicking Goyle. "Let me see," he said, patronizingly. "Here, I have a perfect chance to torture a filthy mudblood, who for the past six years has always beaten me in class. Who in my third year happened to slap me before the whole school and who also just happens to be friends with the one guy in the world, who I just happen to hate, and my perfectly good friends think that I WOULDN'T BE INTERESTED." He screamed out the last part raising his voice as high as he dared to.

When the two oafs had shuffled out, Draco slammed the door and turned around only to be met with the sight of Granger standing up, clutching the wall for support, and looking ready to spring at his slightest move.

"I'm warning you Malfoy, try to touch me and I'll make you wish that you were never born."

Draco shut out Hermione's threats as he started rethinking his plan. He had a certain panache for ignoring other people, which he used to his full advantage, as Hermione's voice reached its shrillest crescendo.

He moved to the window, ignoring Hermione and looked out. The sheer drop seemed to do wonders to his mood and as he turned around, Hermione saw that he had a smug grin on his face. "If you don't shut up mudblood, I'll throw you out of the window," he said, smiling serenely

"What are you looking for?" asked Hermione, staring at Draco, who was now busy searching in his robes.

_He has his wand in his hand, what is he looking for_? "Malfoy?" she asked.

Draco, finding the pack of cards at last, to his great relief, heard her questioning tone and said, without a thought, "No."

"You haven't heard a word of what I have said, have you?" grated Hermione, who did not care for not being listened to.

"You think I have time to hear what a mudblood says," he answered carelessly, as he continued to scrutinize the box.

Then… then you don't want… why… why did you say what you said to…so you weren't meaning to…'' she said and then stopped suddenly finding herself lost for words.

"As if I would touch a mudblood," he said, the disgust evident on his face.

Hermione was just about to retort when there was a knock on the door and Crabbe 's voice was heard.

"Um… Draco, you better be quick, your father and others are coming this way."

He seemed afraid for a second but then with a smirk in her direction, he answered in a singsong voice, "Almost done."

He moved quickly now. With one swish of his wand, he directed an advanced spell of transfiguration at the box. As Hermione watched, it started becoming longer and thinner and sprouted feathers at one end.

_Wait, those aren't feathers its a broomstick._

"That's Harry's firebolt, you scumbag, you stole it," she said recognizing the broom.

Draco shot Hermione an appraising look as he answered. "So? I stole it. What are you going to do? Take me to McGonagall. But wait, she might be dead, by now," he said, a hopeful look in his eyes.

He mounted the broom and turned in her direction, and then with a smirk that could almost be called charming, he put out his hand towards her and asked, "Do you want to come?"

Author Notes

Well here it is. The first chapter of my very first story. The plot (and yes, there is some plot in it) is pretty simple. I just hope that you'll like what I write.

Thanks to **Oldoverholt**, my beta reader, for making this readable.


	2. Acquaintances In Flying

CHAPTER TWO **** ****ACQUAINTANCES IN FLYING

"_If I needed you, _

_ Would you come to me?_

_ Would you come to me, and ease out the pain?_

_ If you needed me, I would come to you,_

_ I would surf the seas and ease out the pain."_

_ -----Julia Roberts in Step mom--------_

"What?" asked Hermione, as she looked at Malfoy's extended hand as if it would suddenly shoot out blast-ended skrewt's puss.

"Look mudblood, it is very simple, either you stay here and fight off Crabbe, Goyle and the death eaters; or you come with me," said Draco nonchalantly.

"Come with you?" repeated Hermione incredulously _"_and how are you any better than them? How do I know that you are not leading me into an ambush… wait, I_know_ that you are leading me into an ambush."

"Suit yourself Granger, I've got better things to do than explain my motives to a moronic mudblood," said Draco and then without so much as a backward look he suddenly soared out of the window.

She wasn't quite sure as to why she changed her mind at that moment. Maybe it had something to do with the fact, that at that precise moment, Crabbe yelled again from outside that the Death eaters were coming, or because at that precise moment the scream of a girl rent the air, or maybe because, at that precise moment, she did not have her wand and would have done anything for help. Whatever the reason, Hermione Granger found herself at that precise moment, running to the windowsill scrambling on to it and screaming out into the still night sky for Draco Malfoy to come back and take her with him.

So she did not exactly use those words, it was more like "Malfoy, wait." When he didn't reappear, she at once summarized that he had not heard her and had left her to her fate. As she stared out, she felt as if the darkness itself was drawing closer to her. It was a second later that she realized that it was Malfoy in his dark travelling cloak with such a smug smile that she dearly wished for her wand.

"Changed our mind, have we, Granger?"

"How do I get on?"

"With your legs,"

"Ha, ha. Get into the room and then let me climb on."

"Look Granger, I don't have time for mid air conversation. Either you get on or not,"

"I'm scared of heights."

"Oh, how interesting! Don't mind if I don't care."

She put a nimble foot on to the broom but she need not have bothered for the next second Malfoy had yanked her on to the broom.

"No-o-o-o-o," she screamed, her voice being carried away by the wind.

She clung to the broom in desperation, shutting her eyes to prevent herself from looking down; knowing from the slanting position of the broom that they were gaining altitude steadily. For the first time in her life, she was glad that Malfoy was behind her and the solid barrier prevented her from falling off the broom.

At last when she felt the ascend stop, she opened her eyes, a bad idea as they seem to be skimming close to a layer of clouds.

_'What would Harry and Ron think if they saw me right now?' _

She felt her whole being as if fall of the broom. She had forgotten them. They must still be in school fighting while she had run away. She had deserted them.

"Put me down in the school grounds," she said trying to make her voice sound as normal as possible. "I have to help Harry and Ron."

"Oh, how touching. Granger wants to help her already most probably dead boyfriends. Well you can jolly well let that thought go. I'll take you to were your parents live, leave you there and you can bloody well save "the boy who lived to be a pain in the neck" from there."

"I ……I can't go home." It was a barely audible whisper.

"What don't tell me, Miss Perfect Prefect doesn't know where she lives? I know a muggle hovel is no better than dirt but it surely must be somewhere on the map._"_

"Its not that," she said, softly not really caring that Malfoy had insulted her for the millionth time. "They've gone into hiding, Professor Dumbledore was of the opinion that …that Voldemort might try and attack them considering they are my parents."

"Aren't you famous?" he said contemptuously. _"_Do you know where they are?_"_he asked, already knowing her answer would be a no.

"No, I don't know" she said '_and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you.'_

She was trying to figure out why he had helped her, maybe it was a well-set plan of Voldemort to get at Harry, but then why help her in the first place?

"Do you have any relatives?" his voice was almost hopeful

"No, not really, I do have distant relatives in Australia but…"She drifted off as she heard him curse and realized that he was not much interested in her relatives on a different continent in another hemisphere.

"Now what am I supposed to do with you?" he muttered when he had used all the swear words he knew twice over.

"I told you, set me down in the school grounds."

"Right, so that you get killed, I get caught and blamed for your death. I think not Granger."

"So you think that we…Hogwarts will win." She had said 'we' and then realized that she wasn't quite sure on which side Malfoy stood.

He did not answer her question and the abrupt silence did not heighten her mood.

"Malfoy?" She asked turning her head slightly to look at his face. He had a far off calculating look in his face, at least, that was the best that she could make out.

"Huh," he said, coming out of his reverie in the most ungraceful manner. He realized she had asked him something. He racked his brain to find what it was, and then decided he would just go with her last line.

"There is no way I am setting you down in the school grounds. Besides we have already left them behind." He said looking at the open country that was now and then visible beneath the clouds.

Looking at Hermione's open mouthed "that is not the question I asked" expression he realized that he had again missed her question.

"What? Granger, do you think I have time to listen to a…"

Hermione sighed as she heard him repeat the sentence for the second time that night. She dearly wished she had never ever called him back.

As if hearing her thoughts he said with what would have been concern in his voice,

"If you are not comfortable you can always get off," he offered "its just two thousand feet to the ground. I'm sure you will reach it in no time,"

As she heard Malfoy chuckling at his own joke she felt the feeling of despair sinking in to her heart.

A plan had been forming in Draco's head all the time Granger had been blabbering. If it worked, he knew it would further ensure his safety and reputation.

_'It would almost take two days… one day for the fight to end…one day for things…. he would have to bear her for two days… god, help me'_ he thought.

She was shivering he suddenly realized as he felt her before him.

'Maybe …I should offer her my cloak, or…" he thought grinning to himself. He suddenly dipped the broom in a dive so that the cold air rushing into their faces increased tenfold.

As he heard Hermione's cry of alarm, he felt a great feeling of tranquillity and satisfaction dawn on him.

Two days…for two days he would just make her stay with him a living hell.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked for what she felt was for the tenth time. She was quite sure that they had been flying for at least two hours and the cold had made her very numb and stiff. Draco's sudden dips and whims to go through clouds did not heighten her pleasure.

He seemed unaffected by the cold what with the thick travelling cloak he wore. He seemed quite at home with flying on a broom in the middle of the night and only took his hand off the broom to look at the compass in his watch once or twice. It was of the Comet make (same company which made the broomsticks), which along with the time also had a compass, which could be set to a particular destination. One wrong turn and it would glow red and Hermione had to admit that he seemed to have a good idea of where he was going.

"Where…" but she was interrupted as he suddenly swooped down again.

'_Not again_' she thought, clutching the broom, from the experience of the last twenty times or so. She had a good suspicion that he did it only to scare her but this time she realized that he was actually descending. All she could see was a wide expanse of a dark countryside and a dark huge structure that stood out. '_A building,_' she realized.

"Guess what that it is?" Malfoy said suddenly, his voice near her ear making her jump in the eerie night.

Reflexively came the reply, "Since, you are bringing me here, it maybe a prison or maybe it's 'You Know Who's' place or it may even be the 'Order of the Evils' Hideout." The drop in the height was making her feel much safer about talking to Malfoy.

"Or maybe …"Draco said, his voice rather huffed up "it may just be my home."

"If it's your home then what's the difference between it and my guesses?" she asked, realizing the next second that she had gone above her "insulting Malfoy" limit when she was unceremoniously manhandled off the broom.

"Why did you bring me here?" Asked Hermione, running after Malfoy who was striding off towards the house.

"To torture you, remember" he said grinning sadistically at her.

She stopped at once and a look of such terror spread on her face that Draco felt sure that she would run off.

He strode back to where Granger was standing, grabbed her hand, and pulled her along as he started walking "for Merlin's sake, Granger, I was only joking, I have to pick up some supplies before we run for it."

" Run for it? Why would you run away?" She asked, as she stumbled after him.

"Look Granger," he said turning suddenly. Hermione, who had been following him rather blindly, walked straight into him.

"Look Granger, it's very simple. I don't want any part in the war, no part in it"

"So you aren't. … Don't want to be a Death eater?" she asked incredulously.

"No," he said, walking up a series of marble step that led to the front door. The house even in the darkness was rather beautiful. Hermione could dimly make out far-off statues, fountains and lanterns. But her mind was too confused to register it.

"So…so you are on the side of light."

He did not answer, until, they stood on the landing, before the massive front door, leading to the house. He then turned towards Hermione with a nasty smile and said, "I did not say I was on the side of light either, now did I? Granger"

With that, he yanked her into the house.

Hermione Granger found herself in a hall, which would make the Great Hall back at Hogwarts cower in comparison. The arched ceiling seemed so high that Hermione was quite sure a Quidditch pitch could easily fit in. The place was dimly lit with a light that came more from the walls than from the crystal chandeliers. There were large watercolours on the walls but it was too dark to make out the contents clearly.

She had never thought of how Malfoy's house would have looked like. But she had been used to, for the last six years, of thinking living quarters of Slytherins' as dark, cold and more or less uncomfortable. But this…it was safe to say that she was truly stunned by the place's magnificence.

Draco for all his haste could not stop himself from taking pride from Granger's apparent appreciation of his house.

"So…Granger, what do you think of the headquarters of the "Order Of Evil?" he asked looking at her eyes which were lapping in the room.

"It's beautiful," said Hermione.

The answer really shouldn't have surprised him after all it was the truth. Yet, not even in Veritaseum induced state, would he ever admit that anything of his enemies was remotely nice not even if it was paradise itself and to hear Granger, his sworn enemy, make such a frank observation was surprising to say the least.

"Come on, you've ogled enough my hall." He said pulling her hand, which he still held.

"Malfoy let go of my hand. I can walk well enough without you dragging me," she tried to pull her hand from his grasp without much success.

"There is nothing I would like to do better, than letting go of your filthy hand, Granger but my house like me does not like mudbloods. If a half-breed enters the house then the security spells go off, my presence might, however, prevent it. Now you wouldn't like missing half of that clever brain of yours, would you?"

"You should have left me outside" Hermione said, grumbling as he pulled her to the passageway that led out of the room.

"You ever heard of half breed catching wolves."

"Apparently not," he said looking at her surprise filled face.

"Now don't say a word," he said, whispering to her as they stood at the entrance that led to the passageway. "There are portraits in there, of my ancestors and they answer to the head of the house, my father. Most of them will be drooling in their sleep now and if you would keep your mouth shut and your head down hopefully they won't notice us.

Hermione for all of Malfoy's warnings looked with interest at his ancestors. The likeness was very obvious. Black and silver hair seemed to abound and pale skin seemed almost a norm. They were designed to look strict, disciplined but all were nodding off in their sleep.

An insane thought filled Hermione's head _what if a Malfoy had red hair?_ _Would he be disinherited? _

Almost at once an image of Malfoy with red hair and freckles flashed through her mind and she almost giggled outright. Then she tried to hide her giggle and at last, succeeded in making a squeaky sort of noise, which made Malfoy turn to her with a look of such exasperation that she felt very much compelled to laugh out again.

Thankfully by then, Malfoy seemed to have reached where he wished to go and she entered another room, which simply took the cake from the other one.

It was, she saw, a series of rooms filled from top to bottom with books. For the first time in her life she actually envied Malfoy.

She would have liked to stand their gazing at what was surely heaven but Malfoy was already heading towards a painting of an Arabian horse. He reached out and stroked its hair and it reacted, by trotting off the canvas and leaving in its stead a gaping hole. For the uncountable time, that night, she was again manhandled and hauled up through the hole and found herself standing in a smelly damp passageway climbing high out of sight which put the whole house to shame. _'Gloss over dirt,' _the thought applied, she realized both to the house and Malfoy.

Malfoy started moving up the steps and soon, Hermione lost count of the number of steps, she had climbed. Finally he pushed open a door and left Hermione blinking in the light of a spacious bedroom. '_Malfoy's' _she suddenly realized as she saw the Slytherin colours.

Hermione watched as Malfoy went around the room de-transfiguring things. Vases, boots, other odds and ends seemed to turn into galleons, sickles, and other things of value. For Hermione, who had always thought "supplies" meant invisibility cloaks, marauder maps and books for learning counter spells, it was surprising new experience. It was the first time that she came close to completely comprehending the knowledge, to which Draco had been accustomed to all his life, that money meant power.

"Is this the way all Malfoy's store money?" she asked finally as she watched him stuff everything into an oversized bag.

Draco, though, very much pressed for time, nevertheless wanted to impress on Granger his brilliance. "No Granger, ever since I made my plan, I've been shifting the money from my account to safer places. My father can otherwise bind my account. This is basically a small amount of ready money which will last me until the rest filters in." he said, slinging the bag over his shoulders.

"Does your mother know?" she asked wondering as to why exactly he was running away.

For a second he did not answer. He, somehow, did not like her mentioning his mother, basically because he was trying to forget about it…her, himself.

"No Granger," he said, picking up the broom. "Unless dead people can hear their son's thoughts she does not know."

_Hogwarts_

"Stupefy," screamed Harry Potter, pointing his wand above the upturned table in the Great Hall. Ron, he could make out, was a few feet away him and was banishing people across the room and Ginny had a couple of death eaters fighting off the bat bogey hexes.

When the Death eaters had attacked he had known…known in that peculiar way of dreaming that it was going to happen. He had woken up Ron and they had meant to go warn Mc Gonagall as Professor Dumbledore had been away at the World Summit For Wizards (a pompous affair were Fudge had meant to explain how and why the presence of "You Know Who" had been for so long denied by the media and the Ministry. And why it was attributed to the delusional story of the boy who had lived.)

But no sooner, had they got out of the portrait hole than a band of Death eaters had attacked. At first, Harry had thought that they had come only for him but they struck out blindly, as if the object, they attacked, was not important. It soon became apparent, that they meant to cause maximum damage to Hogwarts itself, than to anyone else. The passageways filled with smoke as the Death eaters set fire to the ancient building. Harry did not exactly remember how he had ended up behind the table in the great hall flanked by Ron on one side and Luna on the other. Almost all the members of "Dumbledore's Army" were there and they seemed to be holding out rather well.

No sooner would any creature of the Dark Lord enter than the students would blast it into oblivion. At times, he thought he saw glimpses of other teachers but there was no trace of Professor Dumbledore.

"Harry?" it was Ron calling him. "Did you see Hermione?" his voice breathless with sheer exhaustion.

"I ….no, isn't she on the other side?" Harry asked; ducking as a spell narrowly missed the top of his head.

"Oh, okay! I thought I saw her near Ernie. So that means she is all right. Right?" a slight smile appeared on Ron's face. His voice was almost questioning trying to gain his friend's assurance in the matter of safety of Hermione.

The smile sickened Harry. It held hope, joy, and life, everything that he seemed to have lost.

"Yeah," he said wearily "she would be fine."

The house that Hermione stood before looked very much like the one before except it seemed a degree less impressive.

She remembered very little of the flight from Malfoy's house to this one, which stood in the middle of a wooded estate.

At first, she had been too shocked to speak. How? How had his mother died? What had happened? Somehow, somewhere she felt it had a connection with the way he was acting now. Not that he had turned into a guardian of good or anything but the fact that he did not want to be a Death eater… something must have happened. Maybe his father had something to do with her…

She had tried saying something along the lines of feeling sorry for his mother's death but he had laughed it off bitterly.

"Please Granger," he had said rolling the "please" with all his sarcasm "don't even try to pretend to be sympathetic. I understand that, that's what Gryffindor do, feel sorry for everyone but I don't need your pity."

"Besides," he had said thoughtfully, after a pause "I have never been able to understand why people say 'I am so sorry' when people die. Especially when the person does not know the deceased or the person they've saying it to, properly. How can you feel, Granger, sorry for my mother dying when you don't even know her? And if you are saying you are feeling sorry for me then it's even more laughable as whoever heard someone feeling sorry for your archenemy?"

She had not been able to answer him. Somehow his argument sounded right even if not completely true. The rest of the journey had lapsed into silence.

The sky was darker, it being only about an hour from dawn. She could only slightly make out the manor. Draco stepped forward and announced mockingly, "welcome to Ireland, welcome to Shawcross Hall."

Hogwarts

_"__Engorgio," "stupefy," "Kolum,"_ spells after spell was heard throughout the Hall. The fire that the Death eaters had started seemed to have spread everywhere. Cries and shouts of people filled the air.

"It's no use," shouted Harry, suddenly, dropping his wand and putting his head in his hands. Ron, its no use."

"Don't say that Harry…. its not yet…" but Harry did not here the rest. He felt a drop of water on his head and then another. Drop after drop, started falling; their intensity increasing. Both the death eaters and the students looked up. Rain was falling from the overcast ceiling. The Death eaters had not expected stormy weather and the fire was not waterproof. Smoke filled the room as the fire was put out.

In amazement both Harry and Ron looked at each other and then at Neville who was staring open mouthed at the ceiling.

"Is that …supposed to happen?" asked Luna, looking down at her dripping pyjamas.

"Well, Miss Lovegood," a clear voice spoke making all four turn around in surprise. "The ceiling is not only ornamental, you know."

Standing three feet away with his wand drawn out was…

"Professor Dumbledore," whispered, Neville weakly.

Shawcross Hall

"Whose house is it?" Hermione asked, as they stepped inside.

"It's my mum's second least favourite aunt's house. The old coot died almost twenty years ago. My mum inherited it as all her aunt's children have rotted away in their graves. And as my mother is in the process of rotting away in her grave, it legally belongs to Me." he said, depositing the firebolt, rather carelessly, Hermione thought, on the living room carpet.

"So doesn't your father know about this place?"

"I don't think so. It's easy to forget such secluded properties, when you've got so many." he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Hermione could have sworn he was being arrogant but then again it was most probably the truth.

"So, no one lives here,"

"I do not have acquaintance with the million of insects and rats that infest this place, Granger."

"I mean for twenty years there have been no humans in this house other than us," asked Hermione, looking at the spotlessly clean corridor that they were walking through.

"Us? I do not see any humans here. Granger. As they are no mirrors, all I see is an ape with bushy hair."

Then looking at her exasperated expression, he answered to ward off, her string of questions. " No Granger, except me and my mother, no other human has been in this house, for twenty years." He said, opening a door. A fire burnt in the grate, the four-poster bed was newly laid out.

"Then how is this house so neat and how, Malfoy, will you explain the fire?" asked Hermione almost shouting in exasperation.

His trademark smirk infuriated her and she was almost compelled to strike out with her bare hands.

" Granger, what a shame. I should have expected it, I guess, what with you coming from the muggle world and having never gone to a proper wizarding house except your poor darling Ronnie's house. Still, I thought some schooling would have an effect on you but I guess not. Eh, Granger?" he said, his eyes alive with amusement.

"Just. Tell. Me," she said, talking through her clenched teeth punctuating each word.

" It's a self-serving house Granger. The house elves look after it. The house has some money in the bank which is used up for the house's maintenance."

"Oh," she said, feeling stupid. She mad a mental note that she would read about it the moment she got back to Hogwarts. _'Must be in the stupid housekeeping section,'_ she thought angrily.

"Right" he said, the slight laughter that had filled his eyes disappearing. "You can stay here, Granger. My room is down the hall. If you are in some kind of need, scream and I won't answer. Don't come anywhere near my room or I shall take great pleasure in strangling you," he said, smiling serenely

He turned to leave and Hermione found herself putting out her hand stop him.

"Wait I…. thank you" she said, removing her hand from his shoulder quickly "for you know…er back there."

An almost wolfish grin appeared on Malfoy's face. "You can save your thanks, Granger. You owe me and you will have to pay me back," he said stepping into the room making Hermione move a few feet away.

"How can I help you?"

"Granger, I hope you understand that I did not save your life out of the goodness of my heart, wherever it may be. Always remember Granger; I do not do anything, which does not have something of a profit for me. I saved your life to save my own skin. I'll set you down in two days time between your dotting friends and then you will tell all those good Ministry people how Draco Malfoy saved your life and has chosen the side of right. That done, I will be safe from being killed by any Auror. As for my father I can always run,"

"But how can you suppose the Ministry will believe me?"

Your Harry potters beast friend, what with the reappearance of "You Know Who" they are bound to believe you." He said as he turned to leave.

Don't you mean best?" shouted Hermione after him, as he made his way out of the room.

"Not really," he said, banging the door as he left.

Authors Note

If you have actually read through all that then I hope you don't mind the rambling of a poor deranged first time writer. First of all thank you all for reviewing!

I was so happy. I mean seriously happy! And yes a further 23 reviews would ensure my continuing happiness. (23rd happens to be my birthday, you see, not this month but anyway). It has been a very strange week with 2 important things happening.

1) Even though thought my marks in bio and physics were really low turns out I just slipped down by one rank

2) Lost in the inter school basketball game (my number is 6 and me being in sports is like Sahara being in artic.) Still I am happy that I wasn't the only reason why we lost. There were others involved too!

Right. Now that I have rambled for no reason at all, tell me what you think of what I wrote. Please do review and tell me. I am very glad that you guys think I kept Draco in character and I will try my best to continue doing so. He will not get mushy! But please do understand that basically he is out of character for thinking the way he is thinking and no the reason will not have anything to do with abuse or suddenly waking up realizing fantastic father was bad.

Also don't even ask why I chose Ireland as the setting of my story. I have never been to Ireland but I just like that place without any reason. It falls in the list of places I love without reason, which also includes Russia. Places I love with reason are Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Again Shawcross Hall, though, I know seems one of those names that you always chance about in books is the actual assembly hall of my school.

Kshetra

Ps :I know I included a lot of random information but like I said deranged first time author.

Ps: do review


	3. The Space Between

                                                       CHAPTER FOUR                                                     

                                _"If you wake at midnight, and here a horse's feet,_

_                              Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,_

_                              Them that ask no questions aren't told a lie._

_                               Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by!"_

_                         -----The smuggler's song (Puck of Pook's Hill, Rudyard Kipling)---_

Hermione Granger woke up slowly and even before she opened her eyes she felt her heart sink, in remembrance of the previous night. How she dearly wished that it would all be a dream. She got up and drew the huge curtains whose sole purpose seemed to be, not to be drawn back. Having arrived at Shawcross Hall, just an hour before dawn, she had slept late into the day. The view outside was still and the only movement was the falling of the leaves of the far off silver oaks. The sky was overcast and promised rain. She sighed as she thought of how Hogwarts would be, of the screams and the blood or maybe there also stillness had descended that of death and aftermath of war.

The stillness of the house was spooky to say the least and it was this eerie feeling that finally got the better of her and forced her into going in search for Malfoy. She crept slowly down the passageway that lead to his room and without the slightest hesitation put her ear to the door hopping to hear some sound. When she was rewarded with nothing but silence, she slowly opened the door. She need not have bothered to be so quite. The room was empty and the faint sunlight of a rainy day streamed on to the empty bed from the windows.

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She moved frantically through a corridor of the huge house opening the various doors that lay on both sides of her.

 "MALFOY?" she shouted her heart beating faster with each passing second of his disappearance. It had been almost an hour since she had started searching for Malfoy. She had searched the whole house from top to bottom, even venturing down to the kitchens where the house elves had thrown her out. The house elves were true "Malfoy elves" and threw her out chanting "no mudbloods in the kitchen." 

She opened another door and found herself again in the huge front hall. Worry, misery and fatigue came over her in a rush and she found herself slumping down to the carpeted ground and crying.

//_Ofcourse it had been a plan. How could I have been such a fool to believe his story? He must be right now gloating to Voldemort about how he has caught Potter's mudblood friend._ //

She had tried opening the front door but it had been to no avail. The windows also did not budge. Again if she did manage to get out how long could she run? Malfoy had the firebolt and without a wand she was helpless.

Her head was bent and so she did not see the figure approaching her. The fact that her head was bent only saved her from five seconds less of seeing the grotesque figure that was coming towards her with a knife.

When she did look up, she screamed in the very much-expected manner of a heroine in a horror movie.

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Again in the very usual manner of horror movies were when the zombie/vampire/stalker approaches in plain sight with a knife and the heroine screams, it most probably is a false alarm and it is usually the heroines best friend/boyfriend/husband in disguise. In the same way the "grotesque figure with knife" turned out to be Frederick, the security ghost of Shawcross Hall with a buttering knife.

Frederick had been unlucky enough in the early 1920's to be mowed over by a brand new muggle contraption, the car. Even though he had been a member of the Shawcross Hall family he had been denied a descent burial as he had died by muggle means. 

This, Frederick told Hermione as she ate the food that Frederick had brought from the kitchens (as Frederick also served as part butler) had severely wounded his pride and so he had told St Peters that he had some unfinished business and come back to haunt Shawcross Hall. 

After terrorizing two generations of Shawcross Hall occupants, the then master of the house had offered Frederick the handsome deal of having whatever that remained of his mortal remains given a descent burial. This done Frederick who had found his forever vocation of scaring people, decided to stay on as the security ghost of Shawcross Hall.

Having gotten over the initial shock of seeing a pulped out figure and the latter morbid fascination of seeing his almost real blood and flesh fall to the ground, Hermione was eating her breakfast or to be more precise her lunch with great appetite. Frederick seemed very eager to talk, having as he said very little company except the occasional intruder who as he pointed out stayed for so little time after seeing him.

"Begging you pardon mam, I, being of pureblood lineage would never have associated with a low blood as you in my life but considering that you are Master Draco's guest here and the fact that I seem to be missing a lot of my pure blood anyway I will give you the honour of hearing me talk." Frederick had launched into this little speech the moment Hermione had stopped screaming.

In Frederick, Hermione found the perfect butler who did not know where Master Draco had gone. "He seemed in a dreadful hurry, usually he does stay to watch me shake off pieces of my flesh." Frederick said sounding rather miffed.

"Why didn't you show yourself when we came?" asked Hermione

"Why I would never do that. I being a security ghost cannot, should not appear before his master without being called or without the absolute need to do so." He said, puffing his bloody chest out and in the process flying of to the ceiling.

" Frederick have you seen Madam Malfoy?" asked Hermione when Frederick came down.

"Have I seen her? Why ofcourse I have seen her. She was a very sympathetic woman and quite agreed that there was nothing I could do to save myself from getting hit by the muggle device"

"So she came here often?"

"No, I think only once or twice but she did tell me that I was the best security ghost she had ever laid eyes on and took great pleasure in seeing my collection of intruder catching and torturing devices" he said grandly.

Hermione chocked on the salad dressing as she spluttered, "you have intruder catching and torturing devices?" 

"Oh yes, I could stop any number of the intruders with them. Would you like to see them?"

"Yes" said Hermione and smiled for what was the first time since the night before. "Oh and I say Frederick could I borrow them?" 

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Two hours later and she was ready. She stationed herself in the room adjoining to the huge hall. Round the room she had drawn a golden line that worked very much like the one Dumbeldore had drawn round the goblet of fire. It would not keep a Malfoy out (to whom the house belonged) but all the others who came with him would very well have to wait outside. 

As for the other devices of torture that Frederick had gathered over the coarse of ninety years they either turned the intruder barking mad or cursed him to eternity. These Hermione felt were a tad too extreme. Instead she gathered all the silver candlesticks and various assortments of dishes, bowls and showpieces, which with a proper aim would knock someone down.

She was acting and thinking on an impulse, she had a vague plan of knocking down Malfoy the moment he entered the room, snatching his wand, and then… then she would just have to face off the Death Eaters or maybe fly out of the room using the Firebolt, that is if the windows opened. She tried not to think about the latter part of her plan and concentrated more on the look of pain that would cross Malfoy's face when the silver candlestick found its mark.

Her plan laid out, she settled down near the window with a good view of the front door with the only book in the whole house found by Frederick with much effort  **_"Cannibalism For Higher Goals By Hainan Smith"_**

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***Hogwarts****

The battle that had started somewhere close to eleven o clock in the night did not last long after Professor Dumbeldore arrived. Teachers, students, even ghosts seemed to be infused with a new spirit with the presence of Professor Dumbeldore. He himself did not raise his wand and instead he opened a small blue box and placed it with surprising ease before the dumbstruck Death Eaters. They seemed surprised to see him and looked at him as if they were looking at a ghost. It was almost like in his presence they seemed helpless to do anything.

 Slowly as Harry watched the box seemed to glow. It seemed to get hotter and hotter until a glowing silver mass suddenly took flight from the box and spread into the stonewalls of Hogwarts and made them glow.

Suddenly Hogwarts itself took a life of its own. Death Eaters, werewolves, and other dark creatures were on their own accord flung out from Hogwarts. Doors and windows were flung open as the Death Eaters were hit with the glowing mass of the walls and flung out from the castle. Even Ron, who had been throwing curses at the flying Death Eaters, was almost thrown out. But Harry and Professor Dumbeldore grabbed him. The "glow" did not seem bent only at throwing out Voldemort's servants but also at mending the harm done. As Harry watched, a gaping hole in the wall started to mend itself and tables began to turn the right way up.

"What is that glow…. glowing thing?" asked Ron when he had righted himself. 

As Harry was about to shrug his shoulders Professor Dumbeldore said, "that Mr. Weasley is Foundation Magic."

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"The Founders you must remember did not build Hogwarts manually. They did not use magic either instead they constructed it…they constructed the magic. Foundation Magic a powerful thing which as you can see has a life of its own," said Professor Dumbeldore as he moved towards his office with Ron and Harry in tow.

"But how was it in the box?" asked Harry as they sidestepped a mediwizard as he magiked a student away on a stretcher. Hundreds of mediwhizard had arrived just minutes after the Death Eaters had been thrown out and had turned Hogwarts into almost a hospital.

"The Founders knew that a time might come when Hogwarts may need reconstruction. After all a castle cannot stand for a thousand years or more without having its share of sieges, fires and battles. Hence they stored the very essence of their Foundation Magic in the box which when released would multiply and restore Hogwarts to its former self. It has been over the years handed down from one headmaster to another." explained Professor Dumbeldore as they reached his office.

Ron had all the while been looking at the students on the ground. His face held carefully contained panic and as they reached the office he burst forth "Professor, Hermione…Hermione is missing."

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"Why didn't you say something before about Hermione? You said she was near Ernie," said Harry pacing from one side of Dumbeldore office to the other. Ron was sitting on a nearby chair bent forward, his fingers in knots. Professor Dumbeldore had left them there and had refused to let them search for her and had instead himself gone in search.

"What I said was that I thought that I saw her near Ernie." said Ron wearily.

"Well you couldn't have been more precise? Could you?" said Harry his voice rising slightly.

Ron looked up suddenly his face filling with anger "are you trying to blame it on me? Her disappearance? You, yourself said that you thought she was on the other side and that SHE WOULD BE ALRIGHT" he screamed the last part.

"Oh I see, blame it on me. Tell me that it's my fault that Hermione is gone. That after all I saw the attack before it even happened and knew that something would happen to her"

Said Harry, his eyes blazing.

The anger that had filled Ron's face momentarily left to be replaced by confusion and surprise and then with disgust "not everything in the world has to do with you Harry. God you think that you have to tie down everything to yourself."

"Oh don't I?" Said Harry, striding up to Ron so that he looked ready to strike Ron. "Oh don't I? My parents died because of me. Cedric died because of me. Sirius…" he said, drawing in his breath "died because of me. An you say that it doesn't concern me?"  

"They didn't attack you Harry," said Ron softly. "Those Death Eaters they were trying to destroy Hogwarts not you."

"He is right you know Harry," said Professor Dumbledore, who had come in as before unnoticed "they were attacking Hogwarts not you, the reason why Voldemort was not there."

"Did you find her?" asked both the boys together.

"No, I do not think she is at Hogwarts." he said softly. He held out his hand to stop the string of questions that had sprung up on the lips of Ron and Harry.

"Do you remember Mr. Weasley how you were almost thrown out too?" asked Professor Dumbeldore

Ron looked surprised and then with a look at Harry said, "Yes, but I…I am not. You don't think I am."

"No, no" Professor Dumbeldore said cutting in "just because you were almost flung out doesn't mean you are in any way connected to the Dark Lord. The magic works in such ways that if you were doing any harm to anyone, irrespective of the reason you would be flung out. You will remember that you were at that time cursing the Death Eaters. It wasn't only you, you know Ron many other Hogwarts students were also flung out at the same time, and I think that is exactly what happened to Hermione."

"But were are they? I mean the people who were flung out. They are not in the school grounds, no one is," said Harry.

Much to Harry's discontent Professor Dumbeldore did not look at him as he answered "that is unfortunately the disaffect of Foundation Magic. In order to ensure total safety of Hogwarts the harm doers are flung out into very odd places. But they will be safe. Why Mc Gonagall I believe has already gotten owls from Mr. Thomas and Mr. Fletchley who ended up in India somewhere. I think it was in Kerala actually in one of the backwaters. They made quite an appearance apparently," 

"So all we can do is wait for her here?" asked Ron.

"Wait yes but not here. Hogwarts is still not safe. Its guards are down. We will wait in Diagon alley," he said taking a pouch of floo powder from his innumerable pockets.

"Professor?" Harry asked remembering suddenly. "How did you know about what happened? I mean how were you able to come from the wizard summit so quickly?"

As Professor Dumbeldore put a pinch of floo powder in the fire and motioned Harry to step forward, he said smiling "I didn't go to the wizard summit. Your letter reached me in time."

"Letter?" asked Harry but the floo powder had already transported him and his words were lost in the fire

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***Shawcross Hall***

Hermione found that it was all very well to lay out plans to catch a snobbish, lying, pale faced Malfoy but things could get quite boring when the snobbish, lying, pale faced Malfoy doesn't turn up.

She had found much to her surprise that the book was rather interesting. It didn't only offer advice on the correct way to eat a human (which as Hermione thought could easily be learned by watching Hannibal) but it also gave reason why human eating should be made legal. What better way to counter population? The book asked.

But later when the continuous downpour had driven out barbarism from her head she had unwittingly fallen asleep on the huge cushioned chair.

She was half way through her dream of boiling Draco alive in a pot filled with freshly chopped carrots (more of an influence from Looney toones from her young age than from the book) than a voice swept her out of her dream into crashing reality.

"Granger wake up and stop drooling." 

It was Malfoy. His robes were dustier than before and from the looks of it he had first gone upstairs and got the bag that contained the money. He was saying something as he looked through the contents of the bag but Hermione wasn't paying attention. She was instead inching towards the table, which held her "Malfoy knocking down stuff."

He looked up suddenly and swept a surprised look at the table contents then with a smirk asked "what Granger? Just because I saved your life you've become my servant and decided to clean up my crockery. You shouldn't have." he turned around as he said it and it was at that precise moment that Hermione threw the silver candlestick at him.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

I am sooo very sorry about last chapter's dismal grammar mistakes and for not quotationing things properly. You see gentle reader I happen to be a perfectionist (here me completely before you say  "yeah right") as in I never do anything to make my work perfect but I always want it to be perfect. Anyway I have tried my best this time to make it as proper as possible.

Answers to questions (not like I got a 1000 or something, only got one but thought will make a heading anyway)

No, I do not find it difficult to keep Draco in character I in fact relish it. Its not that hard and many of my favourite characters are usually nice without being nice.

I thought I'd get real bored this chapter what with almost no Draco but Frederick came through. Tell me what you think of him. I guess he is an "original character" if you can call him that. My first idea after reading or seeing anything is to turn the whole thing topsy turvy by introducing oc but I know people don't like that much and I myself hate it when others do it. There will be one more in the next one. Subsidiary ofcourse.

Again thanks a lot for reviewing. Please continue do so. I know more people read than review but thing is I always rate my own chapters by the no of people who review.

Questions to those who read

1) Is it okay? (Expecting shoes)

2) What do you think of Frederick?

3) Should I put up a bio?

Right that's it then. Hope you liked it. As for cannibalism for higher goals I love that title for a book. It came to me in a particularly boring history class. As the subject matter did not come with the title I left it to be figured out by the fictionary Hainan smith.

                        Love 

                                Kshetra


	4. Expect The Unexpected

                                                            CHAPTER 5

                                                 EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

                                              Expect the Unexpected. 

_                                                        -------Someone I don't know---------_

This had not been the way she had planned it. She had meant to be in control when he returned, not rudely awakened by him. She wasn't that bad a shot actually, but how was she to know that he would use that very precise moment when she threw the candlestick to stoop to pick up the galleon that had fallen out of his bag. Needless to say she missed and missed by a yard. She watched in desperation as it went and hit the mantle and she watched in desperation again as Draco got up with a surprised amused look.

"Um Granger, you do understand you are supposed to "put" the candlestick on the mantle not "throw" it there? He said smirking.

What came next was worst than the volcano on the island of Krakatao exploding. Blind fury wholly possessed Hermione and she threw one after the other everything she had in possession all the time screaming at him.

A very surprised Draco doing some sort of a weird tribal Incan dance was able to avoid most of the articles thrown at him. As he jumped, ducked and got hit rather hard sometimes he was able to make out some of the shouting that Hermione was indulging in.

While he ducked a plate he heard "DEATHEATERS," a boot he heard "A SMUG GOSSEHEAD" and then when he finally got hit by her trusted friend her book, he understood what she was saying.

"STOP IT GRANGER, GOD I DO NOT HAVE DEATHEATERS WITH ME" he screamed over her shouting.

Hermione stopped partly because she was out of breath and partly because she was out of things to throw." YEAH RIGHT. YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE YOU? I know you went to see the deatheaters and I KNOW THEY are…." she stopped short as she looked outside. There was no one, outside.

" Where Granger, where are they?" he asked.   
 "IF I WANTED TO CATCH YOU I WOULD BLOODY WELL HAVE ALREADY DONE IT IN HOGWARTS" he shouted.

"Where …where did you go then?" Hermione asked suddenly felling very small

"WELL NOT THAT IT IS ANY OF YOUR BUSSINESS BUT I WENT TO CHECK WHETHER ALL YOUR FRIENDS WERE DEAD." he snapped his voice still ringing

"You … why couldn't you tell me and go?" she said partly feeling relieved. She believed him, he was too angry to be lying.

But Draco had not ducked more things that he had ducked bludgers in all of the Qudditch matches that he had played just to let her off the hook so easily. He found no reason to tell the filthy mudblood anything and she might as well damn understand that.

"Tell you? " he said advancing toward her miming her tone. " Why Granger did you want me to leave a note, telling you" he said in an affected tone putting his hand to his heart " telling you " dear mudblood, I am going to check whether my fathers dead or whether Voldemort has become principle of Hogwarts. Don't worry, I'll be a little late, love Draco." Is that what you wanted?" he asked looking at her.

For a second she stood still. The word mudblood kept ringing in her ears. She had never paid much attention to that word. Surrounded by friends and in Hogwarts the word had meant only a taunting that Slytherins hurled at her. She had never thought, never imagined how many people would judge her by her blood. And for the first time she understood why Ron had reacted like that. She had heard in less than twenty-four hours about spells against half-breeds, elves who hated her, Frederick who pitied her for her lineage. And she felt a deep sadness and hatred towards the boy who had introduced her into this world, who had first called her mudblood.

Draco to say the least was surprised. He had just insulted her in one of the worst ways that he was capable off and she was just standing there looking at him, with her eyes brimming with tears and her hands clenched into fists. She then started moving towards him slowly with a firm step and for a second a wild thought that she was going to kiss him flashed into his head.

She came and stood before him and he involuntarily took a step back. She looked up at him with tears spilling from her eyes and then raising her hand she slapped him, right across his face.

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Draco mind somehow went back to the same state of bewilderment that he had experienced in his third year when she had slapped him. At that time instead of feeling shamed for being slapped by a girl he had felt surprised that she had actually done it.

He was still in that numb shock when he heard her voice again.

"Dumb" she said her voice shaking not with anger but something even worse. "Dumb that what you. You have no idea of what you mean by mudblood, you have heard others use it and so you use it. I am not a mudblood and I will not have you calling me that again not now, not ever" she finished.

Draco's first impulse was to call her a mudblood a thousand times over in a singsong voice but as his gaze swept behind her at the view outside the window he was startled to say the least. There framed under the overcast sky stood his father and Duncan.

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 Lucius Malfoy standing at the door had not seen his son and his son knew it. With a quick movement he caught Hermione and dragged her behind the curtain his hand at her mouth muffling her protests.

Hermione had just been on the verge of biting his hand when she looked out of the window and saw what he had seen.

At the other side of the wall on the front porch another scene was unfolding. "Are you sure he is here?" asked the man with Lucius surveying the cloudy sky with a mixed expression of delight and distaste.

"Positive, he has to be here and hopefully so is the mudblood friend of Potter." Said Lucius fiddling with the door's lock. He had been trying one dark spell after the other but the door was not yielding.

"What possessed him to spirit her away I don't know, his friends seemed bewildered at his disappearances. He has been acting strange ever since his mother's…."he trailed off

"Now Lucius he must have a good reason, he might have realized that when we lost, it would be best to kidnap her…" but he stopped short as Lucius turned on him with a look of fury.

"Our loosing came as a surprise, that filthy muggle loving Professor should never have returned from the summit. Besides if his good for nothing friends are to be believed he left before, before we…we lost," snapped Lucius cursing the door in his anger.

The man with him smiled then took out his wand tapped the door and said "alohmora" the door swung open. He turned with a smug smile towards Lucius who was looking at the door in flabbergasted exasperation "sometimes Lucius my friend, you make a big deal out of nothing," he said and stepped inside.

He was however instantly thrown out. It was now Lucius turn to look smug as he gave his hand to the smug man who was not smug anymore "and sometimes Duncan," he said imitating his friend's tone "you forget that you need to be invited in."

Hermione watching from inside was surprised. She had only drawn the line around that room, why had he been ……she turned to look at Draco who had despite their situation let out a chuckle when the man had been thrown out. He turned, saw her expression and answered in an off hand manner

 "He is a vampire, always forgets that he has to be invited in. It has happened before." he said as Hermione continued to stare at him but with a slightly altered expression that of shock.

As he watched his father getting into the house and showing an exaggerated gesture of inviting Duncan in, his face hardened and he said "duck under the chair and keep the bag with you, if I know father and Duncan, they'll first check the dungeons and we can dash into the front room, grab the broom and…. why the hell do you look as if you are going to confess something you shouldn't have done." He said looking at Hermione's guilty expression. He knew that there was not much time. He could already hear the sound of his father in the hallway.

Hermione was now truly feeling miserable but she told him about the line she had drawn quickly. She half wished he would scream at her but instead he pushed her roughly behind the chair and like a cat slid behind the huge thick curtain.

He chose his moment well for the next second Lucius Malfoy came striding into the room closely followed by Duncan who however stopped at the entrance.

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For Hermione propped behind the chair, not being able to see what was going on was torture. She imagined Malfoy's father in exactly the same way surveying the room as he had done when he had looked at Hagrid's cabin.

"There seems to have been a fight," said Duncan his eyes flickering towards the window.

"Yes, it seems so," said Lucius sounding relieved. "It is as you said Duncan, he must have brought her here to make sure she does not get away. And there I was worrying my head over…why are you standing at the doorway?"

"I think Draco has been slightly over careful, there is a "forbidding line" around the room." Hermione heard the vampire (for she could not bring herself to call a vampire by a name) say.

"A forbidding line? But who did he think would come searching for her here? And why around only one room not the house" asked Lucius bending down to look at the line.

_Because I could not get out you idiot to draw it round the house._ Hermione found herself almost replying.

"You will have to ask him when you see him, he must be here somewhere. So will the girl. I'll wait outside." Said the vampire and he turned around and left.

Through the sound of her own pounding heart she was able to discern Lucius' footsteps as he moved to the other door that led into the house opened it and banged it shut behind him.

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For several seconds she did not move and when she did get up, it was only because of Draco flinging the curtain from around him and starting to curse (rather loudly) everything from her to her great grand mother.

"Now how the hell do we get out?" Asked Draco to no one in particular as he walked the length of the room and then walked back and looked out of the window. Duncan was now standing outside but in his hands he now held the firebolt.

"Great, now he has my firebolt. Really Granger you seriously know how to invite your own death." he said

Hermione who had almost countered that it was not his firebolt but Harry's instantly fell silent.

"Isn't there another way out?" she asked in a small voice not daring to meet his eyes yet.

"Yes, but we'll most probably run into father on the way, not that it should worry me actually. I'll just thrust you into his hand and say that I've brought him a present. Hell, he may even buy me a new broom for it." He said.

"So…we'll try and get out that way then." said Hermione slinging the bag over her shoulder.

Draco stopped pacing and looked at her in surprise. "Do you think I am joking when I say he'll buy me a broom?" he asked.

"No," she said looking suddenly innocent "only I don't think they allow recreational activities such as flying in Azkaban." she finished triumphantly as Draco glared at her.

"Right," said Draco "here's what we will do. Father must be a good way away now and the dungeons are a long way off and rather large. It will take him sometime to look through it. If we get into the woods, then they might not see us." He said and advancing to the door he opened it cautiously and peered out.

"All clear. C'mon and not a word Granger or I'll personally strangle you." he said and disappeared out of the room with Hermione quickly following.

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For the next two minutes or so Hermione acquired a first hand knowledge on what it would feel like to try and shadow someone and not actually want to shadow that person.

They kept trying to look whether Malfoy's father was anywhere near while they also tried to avoid him at all cost.

Hermione had very little hope of getting out of the house and when they reached the kitchen door (or the servants door as Malfoy termed it) without a single run in she was surprised that nothing had happened.

She half expected the door to suddenly disappear and be replaced by Lucius when Draco touched it but nothing of that sort happened. The door was still a door when they got out and ran towards the woods or "magically managed private woods" to be more precise.

There were only about three types of trees, pines teaks and silver oaks, which Hermione's mind countered, should be growing in different geological positions. Here they grew side by side. She hardly had much time to register the surroundings as Malfoy kept running farther and farther into the woods. A good thing too, as with very little undergrowth they were still very much visible from the house.

 Finally they stopped behind a huge silver oak tree. Its trunk was big enough to hide both of them and there they sat trying to catch their breath. Hermione might have been part of many an adventures but being cooped up with a book all the time did nothing to help with her running skills. Draco Malfoy on the other hand had a lot of practice of running from Filch as having no invisibility cloaks, his main plan for  "how to avoid detention" used to be to run faster than the others.

"I guess we lost them." Said Draco as he stood up.

"Yes but…. don't you think it was way too easy?" asked Hermione. Then looking at his incredulous "I don't believe it look" she continued, "I mean we had so much chance of getting caught but we didn't."

"So Granger, what do you want, more danger? More excitement? Here I am counting my lucky stars that we did not get caught and you…" but he didn't finish but instead turned around.

He glanced here and there and then turned back towards her. He was a shade paler than usual and held up a silencing finger at her when she began to talk.

_had he heard them come?_ She strained her ears to hear a noise but there was no sound to be heard in the rain washed woods.

As she watched, he took out his wand and then signaling to her to stay were she was, he stepped out into the open and hollered at the top of his voice, "I KNOW YOU ARE HERE DUNCAN, STOP STALKING ME IN THAT WAY."

He stopped shouting as he heard a quite laugh, which seemed to come from everywhere.

_stupid vampire tricks_he thought as he spun around, still holding his wand high.

Suddenly the laughter stopped and almost out of nowhere Draco saw Duncan step out, thankfully from the part of the wood from which Hermione could not be seen.

"I guess it's really paid of at last eh? Draco, all those hide and seek games. You found me out, impressive when you've never really had any professional vampire catching training," he said standing a few feet away from Draco.

"Well…I did have an excellent teacher," said Draco desperately racking his brain for a way out of this situation.

"Why thank you but what I would, like to know is were that girl is and most importantly," Duncan asked smiling "why were you hiding behind the curtain?"

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AUTHOR'S LONG RAMBLING

Read this "speaking of dragons" it's my first one shot story, so go click on my name and read it after you have reviewed this offcourse.

I am so sorry for the long delay and I hope that all of you were really mad coz that would mean you wanted to know what happened next . anyway the problem was that this is the year that I take these exams which are like the owls for us (and yes we do have something like the newts two years from now) and are teachers think that giving us an exam every month will make us do well in our owls. Yep I have been swimming in exams.

I'm going on a road trip for the next two days and I want my account flooded with reviews. So go click the button underneath. Would you like to know were I am going? Why, to a forest offcourse. My father has an unhealthy obsession with forest. Every holidays he just dashes mine and my mum's hopes of going somewhere, anywhere but a forest by exclaiming in the way only Jim Corbett could have "let us go to the forest" I guess it's a way to get back to our ancestors, the gorillas perhaps. But we've only seen monkeys. Offcourse I tell every one that I saw leopards and tigers and what not but that's just a tail!!!

Anyway as for Lucius and Duncan friendship I'll explain in the next chapter. And this idea of villain having best friend is something from this story in Indian mythology. By the way I love mythology. Greek, Roman, Indian, you name it. As for Hermione slapping Draco. It had to be done. Tell me if you think it was okay.

And do please review!!!!

Love to all who like to read

Kshetra


	5. Relative Values

**(Because every good story needs a flashback).**

"Why thank you but what I would, like to know is were that girl is and most importantly" Duncan asked smiling now almost wolfishly  "why were you hiding behind the curtain? "

CHAPTER 6 RELATIVE VALUES

To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you. 

                                                -------Buffy on vampire hood-----------

"Apparated_"_ answered Draco quietly.

"What?" asked Duncan suddenly losing his grin.

"Answer to your first question. She apparated" Draco said taking care not to look sideways.

Duncan did not fly into a rage, show his fangs and kill Draco as Hermione had imagined him capable of doing instead he asked thoughtfully "Where did she learn to do that? Muggle born wasn't she?_ " _

Despite his question he seemed to take Draco on his word and did not press on that matter. He instead continued smiling "no wonder you were hiding, your father is going to skin you alive when he knows how she got away from you." You had better tell him now. I think he might just be glad enough about the fact that you haven't turned traitor to worry about the girl too much" He said and turned as if he was leaving.

Now was the part that Draco did not want to go through, the part where he would have to explain. He wasn't sure about the reasons himself. Main reason he had tried running away.

It would be so easy though just to follow Duncan's misinterpretation of his answer. He could go back see his father, who he hadn't seen for months, live comfortably between friends, correction Crabbe and Goyle, maybe he could even let Granger get captured he would get a new broom stick, hell he would get a lot more than a new broomstick…argh he mentally tried to do away the thought and before he could again change his mind he shouted to Duncan

"No, I'm not coming_" _

Draco was painfully aware that Duncan's eyes were now turned towards him and were trying as always to read him. This was one of the vampire traits that as a boy Draco had always wished for. Vampires could sense fear, joy and sadness all of which they fed on.

"You know Draco, your father won't be that mad_"_ he said softly looking at the boy before him whose head was bent.

"No, Duncan, you don't understand what I meant. When I said she apparated I meant that I let her go." He said punctuating each word to make their impact felt on the older man.

"You let her go? As in, by your own free will you let her go?" Duncan's voice was filled with sheer incredulity.

Draco nodded wishing he was anywhere but there.

"Why?" asked Duncan coming to the point, he had his hands now folded at his chest and looked, as Draco thought miserably ready for a long explanation.

"Don't tell me," said Duncan suddenly scoffing him "you just woke up yesterday, sat up on your bed and declared from now on "I shall be good." Please don't tell me that's the reason" __

Hermione was acutely aware that she would do anything to here Draco's answer. She was careful however not to make the slightest movement.

"Yes, sort of, I mean NO, I DON'T KNOW OKAY. I just don't want to be part of this war." Draco said his eyes meeting Duncan's for the first time. The look in Duncan's eyes made him grip his wand harder.

"You understand they'll never accept you? Hogwarts or the ministry?" Duncan spat out. You'll end up hated by both sides and you wont have anyone to turn……… "_EXPILARMUS_" he shouted out the spell without warning.

But Draco was ready. He might have been many times, petrified, hexed, stamped on by the golden trio but in reality even though it was always he, who started the fights, he was always outnumbered considering Crabbe and Goyle when it came to casting spells were as competent as Filch.

"_stupefy_," he screamed almost at the same time. Both the spells hit each other, were deflected, and hit some unsuspecting tree.

"STOP FIGHTING BOY, SHE HAS OBVIOUSLY SCREWED UP YOUR HEAD," shouted Duncan, all pretenses of calmness gone. His wand was held high and he seemed bent on getting to Draco and Draco knew what with his extreme agility it would not be hard for Duncan to disarm him.

"CALIOTROPIS," Duncan suddenly screamed but it wasn't aimed at Draco. It was instead directed at the precise tree behind which Hermione was hiding. For a brief second, Draco almost screamed to Hermione to move, thinking that the spell was aimed at her, but then realized that Duncan had hit the tree at the top and not at the bottom.

The spell worked against the century old wood and in a single blow it's top was cut clean off and with a sickening lurch it toppled down sideways. As the tree hurtled down, Draco realized that he would have to move or be in a state worse than scrambled eggs.

It was lucky that Hermione when scared was never able to move an inch, a habit that had accompanied her since the days of the mountain troll. As the tree hurtled down unlike any sane person who would have jumped clear of the tree, she stayed rooted to the spot. The tree missed her by inches, branches, leaves, and all and then she screamed but what with the noise the tree made as it hit the ground, her scream went unnoticed.

Draco lay sprawled on the ground recovering from hurling himself clear from the tree's path. His lyncathe was painfully wedged against his chest. As he caught his breath, he saw a pair of dragon hide shoes advancing. Draco looked up at the owner of those boots who was looking ruefully triumphant at him. 

"C'mon Draco maybe it's the weather that got to your head. You've always wanted to be a death eater, you can't have changed your mind that easily" Duncan said stretching out his hand for him to grasp.

Draco knew that Duncan had hit the tree to make the diversion, but it seemed it was also screening Granger completely from Duncan's view. He knew that he could not duel with Duncan in his present condition (or any other condition) and decided to do what any self respecting Malfoy would have done in the face of danger except Draco Malfoy did it with a lot more élan.

"You are wrong Duncan_,"_ Draco said giving his hand to Duncan as he got up. When he was up, he slipped his wand inside his robes in full view of Duncan and withdrew his hand from Duncan's and he started making a great show of dusting his robes. 

Finally when he was finished he looked up at Duncan and continued,  "You are wrong Duncan, what I wanted to be, was my father_."_ With that simple sentence, Draco apparated leaving behind a very surprised Duncan, staring at thin air.

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Hermione had considerably got over her shock of a tree tumbling over to hear Draco's last words but what she did not know was that he had apparated.

It was after hearing Duncan curse that she realized something had gone wrong. After her initial shock, her first impulse had been to see if Malfoy who had been standing where the tree had fallen was okay. Hearing him drawl again had quieted her fears but they had again resurfaced when she heard Duncan curse.

It was just when she had been contemplating peeking over the branches to make sure that he was okay when she heard the sound of running feet and thought better of it.

Lucius Malfoy had searched the whole house in search of Draco and the girl but had seen no signs of them. It was on glancing out of the window that he had seen the tree toppling over. As trees in magic woods did not topple over everyday he had taken off in the direction of the woods.

He slowed down as he saw Duncan standing and cursing. Years of experience had thought him that being near an angry vampire, how much ever friendly it is not a good idea. It was this experience that made him approach Duncan cautiously, whose handsome face was now starting to acquire some of the terrible attributes that Hermione had imagined on him. 

"What happened Duncan?" asked Lucius, careful to keep his voice calm.

Duncan did not turn to him. He stared at the spot where Draco had stood, clenching his fingers trying to control his anger at being fooled.

Finally he said, "You were right Lucius, about Draco_"_

There was almost no change in Lucius' expression, either he had not registered Duncan's words, or he had expected it. 

"Are…are you sure?_"_ he asked quietly proving the latter theory right.

"Yes, he…Draco told me._"_

_"_How did he get away?" asked Lucius

"Apparated,_"_ Duncan said repeating Draco's words 

"And the mudblood?_" _

"Apparated, apparently before I came."__

"AND YOU LET HIM GO?" snapped Lucius, suddenly making Hermione jump, at his sudden change of tone.

"I tried stopping him but…," started Duncan but was cut of by Lucius "well apparently, you didn't try hard enough. Let us go back. We'll track him down…. and stop him"

"What do you intend to do?" Duncan asked quietly 

 Lucius seemed ready to snap at Duncan again, then making an effort he said,

 "I will not tolerate my son," and here his voice shook "from standing up against me. I'll do whatever I have to…. to change his mind." he finished sighing

"And what if he doesn't agree?" asked Duncan regarding his friend in the same way he had regarded his son.

"Then," said Lucius, his voice filled with determination "he will not be around to disagree_"_

"He is your son."

"HE IS NO SON OF MINE WHO STANDS AGAINST OUR LORD" Lucius answered savagely.

 He continued in a quieter tone after regaining his demeanor "I will not let him destroy all that I have worked for on a whim Duncan, I have made sacrifices for our cause before. I will do it again if necessary. Here he looked at Duncan again. His face was pale that is paler than usual, something his vampiric friend noticed at once. 

Then without a word, Lucius turned around and started walking back to the house, followed by Duncan who heard quite distinctly, the words Lucius had spoken to himself.

" He can't stop me, no one can."  

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Hermione did not move for a long time, even after she knew for certain the two men had left. Her mind was in turmoil as she kept comparing what Draco had said to his father's words.

//_I wanted to be like my father_//  //_he is no son of mine_//. 

She had always known that Malfoy relied a lot on his father. Half the sentences in his life had started with the proud "my father." It would be a blow if he knew how his father's affections towards him were only second to his service to that vile creature.

//_Not that he would ever find out from me._ // Thought Hermione bitterly. 

She had understood from their conversation that he had apparated. Her thoughts at that juncture had been that of surprise //_he knows how to do that? But he is underage._ // She didn't blame him for leaving her to her fate. What she had been surprised about was the fact that he hadn't been so cruel as to point her out and use her as a diversion as he got away.

Not that he had left her in a better situation. She knew she was in Ireland but where? She knew no one here, her parents were somewhere she didn't know, and as for her friends, she wasn't even sure whether they were alive.

She wished that she had had the patience to ask him what he had found out when he had been gone. 

"_Argh, Malfoy what I wouldn't do to see your infuriating smirking face again." _She said finally laughing at her own miserable position in which she would actually want Malfoy's help.        

She waited scanning the perimeter around her for some sort of miracle reappearance.

When there was none she slowly got up, not quite sure what she was going to do, turned around, and gave a yelp of surprise.

Not two paces away stood Draco. He had his face twisted in comical affection and as she saw him he suddenly put his hand to his heart and said with an infuriating smirk in an affected tone 

"Ow, Granger I didn't know you cared._"_

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YOU KNOW WHAT OF YOU KNOW WHO

RANDOM ADVERTISEMENT UNTILL SOMEONE RESPONDS:

READ "SPEAKING OF DRAGONS" BY well me( please read it!!!!)

Anyway I am sad coz my trip got canceled. And I had to stay at home. On the bright side I finished this. I am so sorry I haven't explained Duncan story I seriously meant to do it here but I have to stop. I shan't be posting for some time coz schools starting and like I said this year I have to take my owl like exams.

Next chapter onwards its going to be a talk fest as in I am going to have them talking like a lot. I hope you would like that. Anyway please do review. Also I am planning to personally address each of you who review this time and say thank you!!!! 

 Anyway don't you think I used a lot of anyways???

Enough is enough. This is it. Adios amigos

Kshetra


	6. A Walk To Remember

I meant to thank you all, 

So here I am,

Danish girl: thank you.  you are a very faithful reviewer. 

Strick: lo Strick (its nice to say lo Strick it sounds good) well here's the next chapter and I hope you read more!!

Scolz03 thanks for reading my other story too and also for reviewing, I'm so sorry that your review got deleted. Like I wanted to change something, anyway somehow ended up deletin everything. 

Preciousonee: do you know I love your other review in which you go "go Hermione" . two words, so much meaning.

Burgandyred: hello NRI!!! I'm not what you call really religious except real close to exams.

Love 2045: love your ps, and yes damn Lucius 

Spaced Out Space Cadet: your screen name is like you know a salute, thanks for thinking my last chapter was excellent hope you think this is even better.

Kagie-chan: thank you for reviewing so faithfully. As for the couple question I quote Draco when he says, "yes, sort of, NO, I DON'T KNOW OKAY"(you understand that I am not yelling at you, just quoting Draco)

I wish I could thank everyone personally whose ever reviewed but I can't right now. But I 'd like to say in a collective scream "thank you" 

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(For obvious reasons). 

Not two paces away stood Draco. He had his face twisted in comical affection and as she saw him he suddenly put his hand to his heart and said with an infuriating smirk in an affected tone 

"_Ow, Granger I didn't know you cared."_

CHAPTER 7 A WALK TO REMEMBER 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.  
But I have promises to keep,  
And miles to go before I sleep,  
And miles to go before I sleep. 

                              -------Robert Frost----------

Draco Malfoy had been used to seeing three expressions on Hermione's face since time memorial. One was a look of disgust another of anger and a third of loathing. Never, had he seen her actually smiling at him with a look of pure delight as she was looking at him right now. Offcourse he'd seen that expression before one time or the other but it was reserved for everyone but him. Not that he had ever cared till now that is.

He was quite sure that if he had been potter or Weasley, from the expression on her face she would most probably have had them in a bear hug. Now that was a disturbing thought.

If it had been anyone but Draco Malfoy who was standing before her let it be Professor Snape himself, Hermione was quite sure that she would have already kissed him twice once on each cheek for his reappearance. As it was Draco Malfoy she was happier in stating the obvious fact "_you came back."_

Draco had three answers from which he could choose one. a) Offcourse filthy mudblood, b) glad you have eyes mudblood c) yes I came back Granger, and did you know the earth was round?

But somehow because he did not want to see any of Hermione's "reserved for Draco Malfoy looks" just then, he chose to answer truly, well part of it anyway.

_"Offcourse I did Granger, you think I'd leave all that I hold above my life behind"_ he asked trying to keep his voice and face both as serious as possible.

"_What?_" she asked rather stunned  

Draco had seen her rather horrified surprise and broke out laughing. It was his real laughter this, filled with mirth and glee at her surprise.

_"You are so stupid Granger! I'm talking about the bag. The bag which contains a lot of my money"_ he said pointing to the bag, which she had forgotten under the tree.

_"Oh……..right……..offcourse the money"_ she mumbled feeling rather stupid.

Draco tilted his head as he looked at her. "If my eyes aren't deceiving me, I really think you thought that I came back for you" he finished triumphantly. He didn't really think that she had thought that but he knew that he would be awarded by a flash of anger in her eyes and retort of "I did not" which he felt would clear up the confusing new expressions.

_"I did not_" was her angry retort as she picked up the bag and shoved it into his hands.

"Its alright Granger to be attracted to me, its allowed you know in the same way in which Weasley can dream about money. After all I am gorgeous, rich and have a magnetic personality." 

Hermione almost gagged at his choice of words but she wasn't the smartest witch of hogwarts for nothing. "_You know Malfoy, I must admit, you do have an animal magnetism about you"_ she started and it was her turn to see Draco Malfoy suddenly loose his cool. His smirk vanished to be replaced by a look of unease. She gave a wide smile at his discomfort and then continued, "_You have all the animal magnetism of a ferret._" She said and with that statement she did an about turn and would have walked away in perfect imitation of a heroine had not the hero (who instead of wooing her back) called after her 

" _Off course you would be attracted to me, I would seem heaven for you after a weasel" _

She would have continued to walk away in haughty pride had not he brought her back to crashing reality "_and as we are at it I would like to add just one more thing"_ he said and found himself smiling at her haughty flight.

_"What?"_ she asked not bothering to slow down.

"You are going in the wrong direction."

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They had been walking now for over twenty minutes and Hermione had no clue of their destination. She had previously tried asking Draco where the hell they were going at which he had mumbled something incoherent as "_to hell." _

The woods stretched out in all directions and Draco Malfoy had only a slight remembrance of seeing the place where they were heading. He was pretty sure what with his watch and his knack for finding places he would be able to find the place in the end. In the meantime that didn't seem to stop them from going around in ever widening circles.

_"Can I ask you something_?" Hermione asked as she wearily trudged behind Draco. 

_" No, you cant"_ he answered cheerfully still rather happy at having succeeded in stopping her in her tracks and making her return to his side with ill concealed embarrassment.

She took his cheerful tone as an invitation and pressed on "_the vampire…. How did you know that he was after us?"_

"_Instincts, Granger_" he said in an off hand manner yet rolling the word   and highlighting its importance.

She would have done anything to wipe that smug grin of his face but gave up that thought knowing it would not give her any new answers.

"_What do you mean_?" she asked ducking the branch that Draco had swung rather forcibly towards her.

_"Vampires stalk like any other predators. They wait and watch until the time is right and spring up on the unsuspecting prey. But it's the natural gut instinct, a prey develops that goes on in its head that something's not right."_ He finished suddenly realizing tat he would make a rather good-looking professor.

_"Since when did you become "prey with instincts?_" asked Hermione sarcastically

.

_"Since the time Duncan's my godfather_. He replied as casually as he could.

She stopped in her tracks and looked at him with wide-eyed horror and astonishment.

_"Vampire …..Your. …Godfather?"_ she asked finding herself rather lost for words.

_"Vampire ….my ….godfather_" he said punctuating each word in perfect imitation of Hermione.

As he turned around and continued to make his way through another one of the bramble bushes that were scattered here and there he heard a rather astonished self-murmur of hermione's

"_He has a vampire for a godfather, No wonder he's so pale."_

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_"So,"_ said Hermione slowly _"let me get this straight. He became your godfather before he was a vampire?"_ she could not for the life of her imagine a vampire in a church ceremony.

_"After that_" was Draco's short answer. He knew that the half hints that he dropped infuriated Hermione and deepened her curiosity and he found that he liked the              mudblood's anxiety. 

It was more to herself than to Draco that she said _"he must have been a death eater before he was a vampire." _She knew quite well that though werewolves, vampires and other dark creatures where used by the dark lord they were thought beneath of deatheater status. //_Half-breeds as they were//_ she thought bitterly.

Draco had heard her word and took great pain in stating clearly _"he was never a deatheater."_

"_How can that be? He is your father's friend and I don't think your father would ever be friends with a vampire without a reason."_ She said rather miffed at not having the right answer.

Draco Malfoy turned around and waited for her to catch up to him. He somehow wanted to tell her. It would shake her innocent belief in the rampant goodness of the world. 

_"Are you sure you want to know_" he said continuing to walk with Hermione now in step with him. "_Don't blame me if you never want to be Professor Dumbeldore again_" he said chuckling at an inward image of a bushy haired headmistress with a beard.

"_First of all. I do not want to be Professor Dumbeldore,"_ said Hermione primly_. I do not think I could ever achieve his status. He is a genius." "Second of all don't believe that professor Dumbeldore would ever do anything that wrong."_

She had said it seriously and so was not prepared for Draco Malfoy to laugh out for the second time that day.

"_Hell, Granger"_ said Draco laughing. _"How can you be so……...so, what is the word …uptight? No, so brainwashed? Yeah that's it and so innocent? Wait minus that, stupid that's what you are. "Brainwashed stupid." And here the world thinks that deatheaters are brainwashed."_

Looking at her glowering face he stopped laughing and declared with one of his best infuriating drawls (he had many at his disposal). "_Well Miss Perfect Prefect Hermione Granger, born of bushy haired apes, star student of Hogwarts School Of Wizardry and Witchcraft, let me tell you a little story. get set for a dragon ride as we look into the  sad fate of one we call Duncan Idanov."_

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After his rather dramatic beginning he had gone on more quietly. As he talked he looked everywhere but at Hermione as if determined to pretend that he was not talking to her.

"_Now, I am not going to explain from his first anti wetting spells to his twenties because frankly I have never been able to stay awake long enough to hear him out. If we do get caught then you can ask him over a cup of blood that part of his life story, he likes to brag about that. A short summary would be he was filthy rich, well looked after and, as you must have already jumped to the conclusion a Slytherin._

"Duncan belonged to the minority of Slytherins who didn't want to be dark lords because they believed it was too much responsibility, neither supporters as they couldn't stand being less important."

_"Like you_." prodded Hermione. For her part she was looking intently towards him to try and gauge his expressions so as to know whether he was lying or not.

Draco chose to ignore her question as he continued, "_the ministry or the group of do-gooders thought otherwise. He was of a family famed for a dark history, friends of countless suspected deatheaters. In those days there weren't many trials. People were killed just on suspicion. Granger you would know that, Azkaban was being steadily filled up."_

_"I've read about it."_ Said Hermione quietly. _\\not so long ago……… snuffles\\_

"_Well then, the people who were meant to save the world decided to do away with Duncan, and here is where your darling professor Dumbeldore comes into the picture."_ He said, the bitterness in his tone evident on his face.

"_How? How could he be involved? You said it was the ministry's doing_." Said Hermione defending Proffesor Dumbeldore from whatever it was Draco was blaming on him. A part of her was surprised that Malfoy was capable of feeling bitterness on behalf of someone else's suffering another part was even more surprised at his evident sympathy for another living being. "_Undead being_" her logical brain at once countered.

"_Yes, it was basically the ministry's doing or the special group of wizards whatever you like to call them_" (at this Hermione flinched at how much he knew) _but even the ministry in those days would ask the advice of one of the most famed wizards of all times who was credited with vanquishing the last dark lord." _He said and this time he looked at her. His smirk held a challenge for her to defend professor Dumbeldore. He knew that she would have understood what he meant.

Thankfully he did not wait for her to speak instead continued "_Professor Dumbeldore said that he was a Slytherin, a trouble maker just because he played a few school pranks and was well versed in dark arts and a very plausible deatheater."_

 _"You can pretty well guess what happened next._ _" The people who were meant to save the world_" needed nothing more. They attacked his house in secret, killed his family as after all when one's a deatheater, his family has to be involved." He said sarcastically_. "I don't exactly know the details, he doesn't talk much about this part. They killed his wife, his parents, and the rest. Their bodies were dumped in the forest, as it was too much paperwork to account for dead bodies especially when none of them had the dark mark."  _

"_Off course what they did to him was even worse. They had half killed him and he was presumed dead and was left in the forest. And who should come stumbling by, but a group of vampires. One of them a girl, if I remember right took a fancy to his handsome face and saved him just when he was almost gone."_

"_She turned him into a vampire_" said Hermione softly and found she now in contrary to before unable to think of him as a vampire.

"_Yep, a good old blood sucking vampire, but I guess he is slightly different more into wine glasses and everything instead of rampant biting. No one would take him in except dad. He and dad were best friends from school plus he is rather useful in tricky situations. Before Duncan would have despised working with deatheaters but after his transformation…."_

"_He wanted revenge_" finished Hermione, looking away towards where the clouds were slowly parting to reveal the evening sun. Her mouth had gone dry; she wished she had never asked.

"_Precisely Granger_," and his sarcastic tone returned as he continued, _"you are rather smart you know for a retard."_

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AT LAST THE AUTHOR'S NOTE (I do love writing this though no one reads it)

At last at long last seventh chapter is complete, I hope you are real mad again (grins sadistic grin) and I'll be taking longer with the other chapters what with me doing badly in exams and what with first prefinals in November. But I will surely write coz it's the only thing that  keeps me sane. 

See I explained Duncan didn't I? I am frankly against unhappy tales but I had to let Hermione see, that not all is nice and rosy in war. What do you think? Was it okay? Or was it way too bad? The name "Duncan Idanov" is a slightly altered name from "Duncan Idaho" (dune series) I love the name "Idanov" I'm not quite sure but it's the sort of name that Russians have.  

Yours for eternity (rather horrifying don't you think?) 

Kshetra.


	7. Split Up Screens

TO THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO REVIEWED

EXLIBRIS: thanks for thinking my story is wonderful and if you read the last chapter pray why didn't you review?

Burgandyred: no accent eh? Sorry took so long to update.

Scolz03: have I ever told you that I love you? Seriously your review was just fabulous. Do please continue reviewing like that. And no I do not think what you said was corny. I 'm glad you think it had depth, as I did badly want my story to have that. And no I do not think its weird you having "a top ten favourite fics list." Trust me when I say I have weirder "top ten list" and do please please continue blabbering. Its nice to know that there are more people like me in the world.

Shortstuff10: answer to your question. I've never done the title thingy intentionally. I guess some of it comes from stuff like movies and songs but see almost all the titles match with what's going on in the chapter.

Some 13: happy birthday!!! (At least belated happy birthday) now that I have wished you I shall kick you if you do not remember next month is my birthday!!!

Kagie-chan: I am sorry if I didn't make it clear enough about Dumbeldore. The thing is I've always felt that Dumbeldore could have done something when Sirius got sent to Azkaban. I mean c'mon he could at least have met Sirius and asked …. Right I'm zoning off again. What I am trying to say is that I don't think that he is always right in deciding how a person's nature is. (I'm quite sure you didn't understand a word I just wrote. I guess I'm bad at explaining things) 

Nicemecha: "DO NOT GO crazy@dammit before you review!!!

Danish girl:  here is your update.

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CHAPTER 8 SPLIT UP SCREENS 

Harry stared out of the window in his room in the Leaky Cauldron. The world outside as he remembered it was the same. People hurrying back and forth, shops overflowing with miscellaneous items. People with ordinary magical lives. 

He turned away from the window and looked at his unslept bed in longing. He had not slept since he had got shipped to Diagon Alley by Professor Dumbeldore who had then disappeared in search of Hermione. He was too afraid to sleep, afraid that Voldemort would find out from him where they were, afraid that he might find out from Voldemort what had happened to Hermione. 

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Ron in the room next to Harry's was lying on his unmade bed. It was four in the evening and still there was no sign of Hermione. //_offcourse professor Dumbeldore had gone in search of her so there is no need to worry. //_ He reassured himself halfheartedly. 

He was at that time trying desperately not to think about Hermione and was instead occupying or trying to occupy his mind by counting the number of notches and scratches in the dingy ceiling above his head.

He knew Harry was in the next room but he also knew that it was useless to try and talk to Harry. _// He must be still blaming himself//_ he thought bitterly.

 Last year had been a nightmare. Maybe it was because he had been ashamed of his fourth year jealous bout of anger that he had sat quiet last year and listened to Harry rant. (Half the time offcourse he just had wanted to hold Harry by his leg outside the window until he could knock some sense into him.) He had wanted to support Harry and try and understand what Harry felt, like a faithful sidekick but everything he had tried saying had gone horribly wrong. 

It had been Hermione who had held them in place, held them together. _// She never took nonsense from anyone/_/ he thought. He groaned again as he realized that he was doing exactly what he wasn't supposed to be doing, thinking about Hermione.

There was another part of him that felt guilty. The last time he had seen her they had fought as usual. He had yelled something on the lines of "_are you mad? Why are you studying for a test that is ages away" _at which Hermione had stormed out of the comman room to study in the library (prefects could stay an hour more than other students)

"_If she had not left we would not have go separated, the three of us"_ Ron said out loud. He realized almost at once that what he had said not only applied to last night's happening but also to what could happen to their friendship if Hermione left.

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Professor Dumbeldore contrary to both Harry and Ron's belief had not gone in search of Hermione and was instead in a room not far from theirs. He had to still put of guards around Diagon alley but…….. He looked away from the fire roaring in front of him at the broken wand that lay on the table next to him. The truth be told he was afraid, afraid of how Harry and even Ron would react…he had again withheld something from Harry, something which Harry would never forgive him for. 

When Professor Dumbeldore had gone in search of Hermione he had found the broken wand in the hall and he had instantly recognized it. It was Hermione's wand and without her wand he knew that she could not have done enough damage for Foundation Magic to throw her out and the only other way in which she could have disappeared was if she had been taken….

_"Professor_" the dry voice startled Professor Dumbeldore out of his reverie and he suddenly realized that for a whole minute he had been staring at the disheveled face of Serverus Snape in the fire without actually seeing him.

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_"Serverus "_ he exclaimed and involuntarily moved forward to look at Snape's bloodied face. His lip was cut and his face seemed to have been used as a punching bag. As for the rest of his body Professor Dumbeldore was glad that he could not see.

_"Are you alright?"_ asked Professor Dumbeldore.

If it had been anyone else who had asked Snape then if he was alright he would have promptly given that unfortunate person a piece of his mind in a two hour lecture of "_why you should not ask a beaten up fellow if he is alright"._ As it was Professor Dumbeldore and his face clearly showed his concern he answered scathingly 

"No I am not alright Professor, but I will live" 

He went on in his curt unemotional way that no muggle news reporter could rival and which everyone would pay attention to.

_"I am sorry Professor that I could not warn you. They…the deatheaters locked me in_." His words did not betray the vivid picture that sprang before his eyes of the deatheaters hurling him down each step of the dungeon while the man he served, the lord looked on approvingly.

For a full moment Professor Dumbeldore was lost for words while his mind and heart raced ahead of him. Then putting his head in his hand he sighed the inevitable "_so they know now"_ he didn't bother asking Snape how he had escaped knowing he would never get a straight answer from him.

Serverus Snape like Draco Malfoy wished he could just let Professor Dumbeldore misinterpret, let him believe that he had been found out to be a spy. He would never have to go back, never have to endure it again.

_"No"_ he said out loud and was gratified by the look of surprise that crossed Dumbeldore's face.

"_He (Voldemort) never believed that I came back out of support for him. He was sure that I was a spy. Locking me in was a test, one of "you now who's" twisted ways of dealing out justice. He was confident of my betrayal, but being benevolent"_ and here his were spat out in disgust "_he decided to give me a chance."_

"_So he locked me up. He said that if nothing went wrong with his plan and he was sure nothing would go wrong then it would be proven that I was the traitor, the one who always warned you."_

"_But I came to know anyway_" exclaimed Professor Dumbeldore suddenly realizing where Snape's narration was heading to.

_"Exactly_" said Snape 

"_Because the plan screwed up he knows, thinks that the traitor is someone else. So he let me go. He said a rather long speech about my "innocence," offcourse he had to spoil it all by saying that when he caught the real traitor he would let me have the honour of deciding his fate. Either death by repeated use of Crucio or death by repeated stampede of a giant._ Though the last sentence was delivered in deadly seriousness a small smile graced Snape's face. Harry would have raced for Colin Creevey and his camera to capture that smile but it made Professor Dumbeldore only grimace. The smile showed Serverus Snape's resignation to the troubles ahead of him, troubles that Professor Dumbeldore had put him into again.

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_" Has…so how did you find out?"_ asked Snape changing his sentence quickly. 

_"Harry_" was Professor Dumbeldore's monosyllable answer.

_"He couldn't have"_ was Professor Snape's three-syllable retort.

_"Really Serverus, your dislike for……."_ Began an exasperated Professor Dumbeldore but he was cut off by an eager Snape out to prove Harry wrong.

"He couldn't have, Potter that is. You know who has been setting up many barriers in his mind, magical ones the sort that cannot be easily broken. Potter could not have broken in. Besides He had a plan. He meant to project the details of the attack into Harry's head only at the last moment, when there was no hope."  

Dumbeldore sat absolutely still his face showing no change yet he remembered Harry's words. _"How did you know about what happened? I mean how were you able to come from the wizard summit so quickly?"_

_// Why did he ask me how, when he sent me the letter? But the letter was…..had to be from Harry. Besides Hedwig brought the letter_. // He thought stubbornly 

Realizing that Snape was waiting for his response he said slowly "_maybe, Voldemort could not control his thoughts. After all he must have been exited and his thoughts might have escaped his barriers_" even as he spoke the word he felt that it was very unlikely. Here was a man, a thing that had held so much power; surely he could keep his thoughts in check.

_"Maybe_" was Snape's reply his voice was laced with doubt.

"_Whose wand is that?"_ asked Snape after a moments pause. His eyes had fallen on the broken wand lying on the table.

Professor Dumbeldore had in all forgotten about Hermione and it was Snape's words that brought him back to the worry that had been eating away on his mind.

"Serverus, its Hermione's wand. She is missing. She hasn't by any chance been taken…" 

But before he could finish his question he was relieved to see Snape shake his head in negative. 

"I don't know the plan as a whole, as of yet Professor, but I do know that there were no prisoners. It wasn't an attack on people, it was more like an attack on ….."

_"Hogwarts_" finished Dumbeldore 

"Is anyone out searching for her?" 

_"Almost all the phoenixes"_ answered Dumbeldore quietly 

The conversation lapsed into silence and Snape knew that Professor Dumbeldore wanted to be left alone.

_"Is there anything else you wanted to say Serverus?"_ asked Dumbeldore knowing Snape would take his leave.

But Professor Dumbeldore was in for a surprise as Snape cleared his throat and said, "_Yes, Professor there is one more thing."_

"_What is it? Serverus_" asked Professor Dumbeldore fixing him with a stare that made him very uncomfortable.

_"The students who were thrown out, they are contacting you? Correct?"_ he asked.

"_Yes, most of them, they are being send straight home. Though it seems I have lost all my Slytherins,"_ answered Dumbeldore smiling at Snape's apparent annoyance.

"_Well I guess its no use asking then, but I was just wondering if Draco Malfoy had contacted you."_

Dumbeldore's eyes shot up in surprise not for the first time at Snape's apparent concern for the boy. He had always known that Serverus had a soft spot for the boy but why? That had been beyond his comprehension.  

_"No Serverus, did you really expect him to come back?"_ he asked looking at Snape over his half moon spectacles, a trait that irritated Snape immensely.

When Serverus didn't answer Professor Dumbeldore went on "_it is his father that he looks up to Serverus you know that. You cannot expect him to forgive Harry for putting his father in Azkaban"_

_"Why Professor? Can no one dislike the great Harry Potter and still stand with the light? I ask you is he the epitome of goodness?" _He would have gone on in this strain until the fire itself died out had not he noticed that Dumbeldore instead of paying attention to him seemed to have drifted off into thoughts. 

He stopped short and would have gone off in hurt pride had not Dumbeldore suddenly sat back on his chair and asked him eagerly 

"Serverus, can I ask you something?" 

Surprised at Professor Dumbeldore's eagerness Snape relented.

"_Er, yes Professor."_

"_Did you ever like Narcissa?"_

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If Serverus had blanched, vehemently opposed the statement or turned a deep shade of red and muttered incoherently about Professor Dumbeldore being crazy (even Dumbeldore knew that the latter was very unlikely) Dumbeldore would at once concluded that his assumption was true.

But he was let down when Serverus instead of doing any of these looked thoughtfully out of the fire as if he was carefully weighing the question in his mind and then answered using a phrase from his old forgotten Hogwarts vocabulary 

"_You are asking me if I "like liked" her? No Professor Dumbeldore I don't think so. For one she was much older than me, two she was the git's girlfriend."_ He answered matter of factly.

_"But what if she wasn't older and not the git's I mean Lucius' girlfriend?_" Professor Dumbeldore asked, fully realizing that he sounded like someone from the Witch's Weekly tabloid.

_"No Professor, I know you are trying to make up a romantic tale about a man who loved a woman secretly but wasn't able to save her and so he tries desperately to save her son. But I am NOT that man. I might be the guy who got chucked into the lake by her. But I am NOT the lovesick man_." Answered Snape with a surprising amount of dignity.

"_The guy who got chucked in the lake?"_ asked Professor Dumbeldore smiling.

Snape seemed to loose his composure a tad bit but he answered, "_Long story Professor, something you shouldn't actually know about. Suffice to say that in my first year I was the part of an ambitious plan of two seventh year students, Lucius and Duncan to rid Hogwarts of Argus Filch and Mrs. Norris once and for all. For the plan to work a portion was required and as both Lucius and Duncan were rather daft at potion making so my excellent potion making skills were required. We were making the potion near the lake one night and it was in its finishing stages when out comes Narcissa angry with Lucius for not telling her. She was single handedly responsible for sending the potion and the three of us into the frigid waters of the lake. They learnt that day that I couldn't swim and I learnt that the squid did not like midnight visitors."_

When Dumbeldore had stopped laughing he asked chuckling "_did Narcissa get you out?"_

_"No, I think it was Duncan who came down to get me."_ Seeing a sudden change in Dumbeldore's smiling face he asked, _"what is it Professor? You seem…."_ He trailed off not exactly sure whether to say "_ashen face_" or _"troubled"_

"_No I am alright,"_ Dumbeldore said a little to quickly.

Though he was still not able to shake of the feeling that Dumbeldore was ill at ease he continued _"anyway it was Duncan who got me out, though she did apologize profusely for kicking me into the water when she was aiming for Lucius." _

"_So, you respect her for almost drowning you?"_ Dumbeldore asked smiling.

A genuine smile now flitted on Snape's face as he answered, "_I guess so… She was the only girl who ever got any respect from Lucius. She wasn't exactly any different from Lucius except I always felt that she was too good for him"_

Professor Dumbeldore took a moment before he said, "_So you think Draco deserves better, better than being a deatheater?"_

Snape reply was quick, curt and contrary to his before tone _"anyone Professor deserves better than being a deatheater."_

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CRAP THAT THE AUTHOR LIKES TO WRITE 

****

Hello to the dear people who read. I took a lot of time with this update didn't I? But I warned you I would take time, so there. Truth is, I wrote the eight chapter and it was totally centered on Draco and Hermione and then I realized that I must show the other character's viewpoint too. Plus I badly wanted to involve Snape in my fic. I love his character. He's so… so… human you know. As in you find a lot of people like him. 

This chapter was hard to write as it was basically from the grown up point of view, which is rather hard to figure out. I hope it was all right (its stupid isn't it oh god what have I DONE!!!) 

Anyway my exams have been postponed (jumping around the room jumping back to keyboard to type each word) 

And don't worry I've got the next chappy written so it wont take that much time. And to all those who missed Draco and Hermione in this chapter, they'll be there in full force in the next one.

Love Kshetra 


	8. The Pact

CHAPTER 9 THE PACT 

  "At last" said Draco wearily as he climbed up the grassy railway embankment. Once up there he threw himself on the grass. Hermione who had been following lost in thought looked up at Draco's announcement to see to her surprise that they had completely left the woods behind. They were now standing on slightly raised ground and the railway lines led down to a tiny railway station visible in the evening glow. It was flanked on either side by large fields and scattered farms. The whole view to Hermione looked like a perfectly well laid out muggle toy set complete with a little toy train.

She looked back and realized the reason for not having noticed them leaving the forest was because unlike any normal forest that would have gradually thinned out, here one step had brought her clean out of the forest.

She was just going to ask what they were doing there when Malfoy started explaining half heartedly "we need to get to Dublin, Granger. If there is any whizarding skill in the whole of bloody Ireland it will have to be in Dublin. Which means a Floo Hub has to be there. As you cannot apparate and because of you my firebolt is with Duncan, we have to use your primitive means of transport." He threw his hand gesturing in the direction of the station.  

Hermione was just going to remind of him about "Hogwarts Express," but another thought struck her. "Wait how do you know there is a train to Dublin today?"

"There's a train from here to Dublin everyday" he said still avoiding her exact question.

"But how do you know that?" she asked folding her hands and looking down at Draco who was sprawled out on the grass.

At her question he gave an impatient sigh and said "I went for a ride once, okay"

"You went alone?" asked Hermione her knack for never missing the slightest detail coming to good use. 

"With my mother." was his short reply.

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He was quite sure that she would ask him something and was determined not to answer. He was therefore surprised when she sat down on the grass with a resigned air.

//_hungry_// he thought. //_she must be hungry too_. // The thought gave him satisfaction that it was not only in his stomach that the rats were doing cartwheels in. He thought enviously of how Crabbe and Goyle must be enjoying a sixth helping of dinner.

Hermione on the other hand was remembering Ron or to be more precise the amount of food that he was capable of stuffing into his mouth. (Draco had earlier muttered rather angrily about them being all right in Diagon Alley.)

"You went there?" Hermione had asked. It was ironic how she was afraid for his safety in a place, which she herself considered a haven next to Hogwarts.

"No, I bought a newspaper. Says quite clearly in bold black ink **"THE BOY WHO LIVED AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN IN DIAGON ALLEY PROTECTED AND SAFE."** He had sounded bitter especially in the last part and for the first time she saw a reason for his envy towards Harry." "Protected and safe" all that he wasn't now.

As they both stayed quiet lost in their thoughts the toy train suddenly started to life. _//it was coming their way//_

"Is that…" she began.

"No, he cut in not bothering even to look at her. " Dublin's on the other side."

As it came towards them it started to pick up speed and as it flashed past them she realized it was a returning train as the lit windows were mostly empty. It was her natural curiosity that made her squint to read its destination painted on it in pealing white paint _//Athy_// she registered.

Once the train was gone and the noise had subsided Hermione broke the silence half heartedly as she said, "it is a muggle station Malfoy, we can't storm in there, wands cloaks and all."

Draco Malfoy picked himself up slightly at her question and sat up half way. His usually charmed back hair lay messily over his fore head. He seemed tired and not surprisingly so. Hermione thought with satisfaction. For once his name was not making things easy for him. There was something else about his…but before Hermione could point it out Draco started to talk.

"I am aware that it is a muggle station but unlike you I do plan ahead" he said and then stopped waiting for her to ask him what it was. _//it was nice_// he mused to have the "Miss Know It All" come to him for answers.

"A plan? What do we do? Hit a muggle as he walks past by and steal his clothes?" she asked bitterly. She knew that he would have an answer ready but the fact that he would not give it until he had proven her wrong irritated her to new ends.

"Tsk, tsk" he said with mock surprise. "What would muggle people think? The champion of muggles hitting down muggles? Why the daily prophet wouldn't believe it."

Hermione resisted every urge in her body to knock him unconscious and drag him on to the rails and watch with satisfaction as he was turned into human pulp as she gritted her teeth and asked " what… is…the …plan" her voice shrill with pent up frustration.

Draco could think of at least of four things that would make her loose control but seeing her clenched fist he decided it would be better not to tempt her any further. He quite clearly remembered Marietta's Edgecombs face. Wand or no wand what with her furious expression and out of control hair Hermione Granger was pretty scary.

"Calm down will you Granger, you look like a blast ended skewt about to explode when you're angry" he said and it was good that he was too busy searching in his pockets to see Hermione's Medusa like stare.

"Here we have it," said Draco pulling out of one of his pockets a rather crumpled piece of parchment. He smoothened it out on the grass and Hermione leaned forward to read **"FENDELLA'S MUGGLE CLOTHES FOR ALL WIZARDING NEEDS SINCE 1576"**

"What does it do?" asked Hermione, all her anger dissolved in her curiosity.

"Its simple enough. You write on the parchment your name and the place you are heading to and if you have an account with the store, voilà you are the proud owner of muggle clothing." He said, disgust filling his face at the very mention of muggle clothing.

He then proceeded to write down his name and Scotland. Then he wrote down "guest -short female who badly needs to shave" much to Hermione's chagrin.

As she watched the lead markings that he had made on the parchment disappear (quill and ink being too bulky. even Hermione had to admit he did plan well) she had a flash back of Tom Riddle's diary, which was rather disconcerting.

They had to wait now and they instantly fell back into uncomfortable silence. How Hermione wished she was with someone else with whom she could talk, talk as in normally talk. Being lost in Ireland and lying on a railway embankment with Harry and Ron would have been, well rather fun. (Offcourse she would not have admitted it to them and would have tried to get them worked up about the dangers they faced.)//_but with Draco Malfoy? // _she thought and groaned inwardly.

There was another part of her, the curious part which offcourse consumed three fourth of her which wanted to ask him so many questions. About deatheaters, his father, how his mother had died, about whether he had known about ….about Sirius. 

The thought struck a deep chord of hatred towards Malfoy, which had always been present but which she had overlooked; as she had been too busy being exasperated by him. All the worst things he had ever done right from day one came flooding back into her mind. His sneakiness, high handedness, his name calling habits. How he had given her buckteeth, how he had tried to sabotage first Harry and then Ron during Qudditch matches. True he had been rather subdued this year due to his father's arrest but it had done nothing to change Hermione's opinion of the character of the leader of the once Inquisitorial Squad. 

// _He must have laughed with glee when he thought of Harry's loss// // he deserves his father's betrayal//_ she thought viciously.

It was at this time that Draco from his perch suddenly cleared his throat and said "Granger, I…I need you to do me a favour " he said, the words coming out too quick, not the way he had planned it in his head.

Hermione started, then concluded that she had heard wrong but the more "Malfoy Knowing" side intervened with the thought that this must be one of his tricks.

"What the greatest pureblood albino of the century asking favours from a mudblood" she asked mockingly. // _That's the sort of thing Malfoy would say_ // she thought uneasily.

Her worst fears were confirmed when he answered dryly "glad to see that I am rubbing off on you and though I am flattered that you would stoop to insult yourself just in order to get at me, I want to make it clear that I am only asking you nicely and you don't want to be here when I do otherwise." As he said this he pulled out his wand, careful to twirl it in his fingers in her full sight just for the effect.

Her first impulse was to lunge for the wand but past experience thought her that he had fast reflexes. "What do you want?" she asked levelly looking him squarely in the eye. // _Grey eyes//_ her mind involuntarily registered 

"Nothing much, Granger," he said dropping his gaze to the wand in his hand. "I want you to not mention my father's rather unexpected visit when you are gushing to all your friends about the wonderful time you had when you were with Draco Malfoy."

Before Hermione could ask why he continued "you already know why. He has already many charges on his head. I do not think that he requires another reward put on his head for trying to kidnap Potty's darling mudblood" 

He stopped and looked up surprised at her lack of retaliation. He wondered if she had not heard him but was surprised when she asked in a low voice filled with something, which he couldn't completely distinguish. He knew three tones of voice that she had ever used on him, indifference, utter loathing and just once delight. This one was none of them.

"He was after you too, you know," she said hesitatingly picking on the grass absentmindedly. 

Draco gave out a short disbelieving laugh at her comment. "He is my father, Granger, he could never hurt me. Why "dust of Duncan" would be flying in the air if he had tried to do anything serious to me," he said.

She didn't answer just then but felt…… sympathy……. no …….. guilty at knowing something he didn't know about his own father. She remembered quite well what Lucius had said and she knew that it wasn't an empty threat. The tone, the voice that Malfoy, Draco had used was so sure, so confidant. The same voice that had drawled out insults at her for the past six years. She realized how she had something that would take out that drawling confident surety of his voice, Strangely enough just then she didn't want it gone.

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Draco watched her as she sat her heads bent. She hadn't said no but then she hadn't said yes either. He was uncomfortably aware that he couldn't force her to agree, wand or no wand. The fact that she was obviously thinking about what he had said, weighing the odds in her head and even now probably making up her mind, was in fact unnerving. //_why does she have to be such a thinker? Why can't she just agree with what I say like Pansy does?_ // He thought and then kicked himself mentally for comparing Granger to his girlfriend. //_ex girlfriend_// another part of his brain nastily reminded him.

"Well Granger, cat got your tongue?" he asked. 

She turned to him, her calculating eyes fixed on his face. "I promise I wont say a word about your father." She said simply.

Draco realized that he had been holding his breath all the while that she had been talking and let out a sigh of relief. However his relief was somewhat cut short as Hermione continued "I promise I wont tell them about your father if you promise me something."

"No," was his immediate reflexive answer.

"Fine, that's just a thousand more galleons added to your father's head." She was she realized again talking disturbingly like Malfoy.

"Don't tempt me Granger. I'll shave your head, paint it orange and then put a memory charm on you. All you will be telling Dumbledore is that you have become Chudley Cannon's greatest fan. That and nothing else. // _Please let her be stupid, please_// he thought desperately.

He knew however that she would not be stupid enough to believe him and so was prepared when she said haughtily "and don't you think that they'll check my orange head for memory charms? Unless I lie with perfect sincerity which I wouldn't be able to do with a memory charm in my head, no one will believe me."

"What do you want granger? Respect? Kindness? Because I don't have any of these." He said contemptuously.

She looked at his laid back position as she answered "respect has to be mutual, Malfoy and I could never respect you. All I ask is when I ask you a question; you give me true and straightforward answer for at least five out of ten."

She half expected him to tell her to go to hell and was therefore relieved when he said rather coldly, as the line about respect not having gone down well with him "three out of ten, Granger and not a word about me, my hair or my mother"

"Your hair?" she asked curiously 

"My hair," he affirmed sitting up suddenly and smirking at her. "As if I would share the secret of my gorgeous hair with someone who has…"  he looked up at her wind blown hair "whatever that is"  he said pointing at her hair.

He made a swaggering move to run his hand through his hair but was stopped midway by Hermione's next sentence, which was asked with feigned wide eyed innocence

"Are ants the secret of your hair?"

"WHAT?" he asked 

"Either that or you have been lying on an ant hill." She said and pointed at his snow-white hair, which was now swarmed with dozens of red ants.

Hermione Granger had for the next five minutes the privilege of watching Draco yelp in surprise and jump up and down (in a rather repeat performance of Ferret Act back in school) trying to shake of the ants which seemed to have decided to make him home after the invasion of their home by him, the existence of which Hermione had known twenty minutes before and of which she had conveniently forgotten to tell Draco Malfoy about. 

LUNATIC RAMBLINGS OF A LATE UPDATER

First of all I am sorry that I didn't update for so long but I finally finished with my exams. So yaaaaaah. Offcourse I did badly but hell its over. I don't have another one till January. Okay I know that's not far away but anyway. Yippee. Next chapter is written down in my book so shouldn't take long to type it.

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK (as It has nothing to do with the story and everything to do with my boring life)

Went to a typical Bollywood (no I haven't mistyped it) movie with which I totally fell in love with. The story is complicated enough. GIRL ONE and GUY ONE are best friends but they are not anything more. GUY TWO comes along who is funny charming and oh my god so handsome. Anyway GIRL ONE falls for GUY TWO just as GUY ONE falls for her. Offcourse GUY TWO also loves the GIRL ONE but what a surprise he's got a heart disease of which there is no name. So what happens? Personally I would have liked GUY ONE to have a freak accident and die (as he is not half as cute as GUY ONE) but before that his heart should get transplanted into GUY TWO. (all right don't you dare approach me with medical impossibilities of this idea). Anyway in actuality GUY TWO dies after making sure GIRL ONE and GUY ONE live happily ever after. (Of course he plans to kick GUY ONE'S ass in his next life but you know we never get to see that.) Why I love the movie. Because its damn funny and GUY TWO is my favourite actor. Oh and there was a GIRL TWO too but she was his doctor.

PEOPLE WHO ARE SOOOO NICE SO AS TO READ AND REVIEW THE CRAP I WRITE

DISNEYLUVER, FLAME DANCER007, EXLIBRIS, CLARE, SHORTSTUFF10, LULU, DANISH GIRL, PINK07, HEATH-LOVER, MY-CAT-SMUDGE, SCHOLZ03: (I've got two words for you. Thank you.) SOME 13: (wish me later. Will definitely be putting up a chapter before Christmas.): IRIDESCENTDREAMS: (thanks I'll change that habit of mine). BURGANDYRED (first of all never apologize for long reviews I LOVE them. and thanks for all the wonderful things you said. And thank you so much for pointing out Dumbledore error. I've corrected that. And yeah I know the italics I got the wild notion that I should write conversation in italics but I guess it's confusing. But there is one thing I have to disagree with you. Skim through the books. You'll see that even in his most angry moments Snape always calls Dumbledore Professor. Anyway I HOPE you read through the whole "do it at your risk part" guess which movie it is. You should know  J )


	9. Excess Baggage

Surprise!!!! (because I badly wanted to write and because I never did keep my promises)

Am on the joy ride of possessing a hundred reviews I am so proud and flattered

CHAPTER TEN                            EXCESS BAGGAGE 

It hadn't been long afterwards that a lumpy packet landed on Hermione's lap. She had taken it along with her a little way back into the forest so that she could change.

The woods now looked rather forbidding from the outside, almost like the magical woods in the fairy tales, which only the prince could ever enter and which was feared by the villagers. She snorted at a rather unappealing image of Malfoy dressed in a red tunic and a crooked crown sprang up in her mind and she chuckled at how it had taken him a solid ten minutes to remember the insect repelling spell which as usual she had had at the tip of her tongue. He had then fumed away into the woods furious at everything around him.

She had rather dreaded opening the packet considering his description of her had been far from satisfying but fortunately Fendella's like everything concerning Malfoy was expensive and the best. The clothes were meant to make a wizard look like a muggle, well they succeeded in making wizards look like rather rich muggles.

The long skirt and long sleeved buttoning shirt were definitely very female, not the sort she wore much but it was muggle and that's what counts. //_it was weird_// she thought. Thinking of passing as muggles now when she had lived half her life as one herself.

She took of her Gryffonder tie and the dark traveling cloak that Malfoy had tossed at her back in his house. At first she had been very much touched by his act of kindness as her own clothes had been very  messed up but no thank you had been forthcoming from her lips as he had to spoil it all by muttering next minute that he did not want to be walking around with someone who resembled Wendelin.

Her clothes fitted her perfectly _// magic_// she realized as she ran a hand over the pale cloth. // Wonder why it is so long? // And then it dawned on her. "Short female who badly needs to shave". 

"Argh" was her short and appropriate reaction to that thought.

She walked back into the clearing fuming but stopped short when she saw Malfoy. It was clear that he had also received his package and changed into… She almost laughed in glee not because he looked bad but looked so…. different. 

He was seated a good distance away from where he had been seated before. He had his wand pulled out towards a steadily marching column of ants and from the looks of it they were moving ……

"On to the rails?" she asked the last part out loud as she trudged up to him.

Draco didn't look up as he answered "yes, the rails. I have ordered the ants to march on to the rails and stay there. When they hear the sound of the distant train, I want them to think long, well as long as they have and hard, on why they shouldn't have messed with Draco Malfoy." His smarmy voice easily carried the smugness that he felt.

"I didn't know you talked ant, Malfoy." Hermione piped sarcastically.

"I don't talk "ant" Granger, I do Imperio," he stated in an off hand manner.

He had of course had the moment timed to perfection in his head. Always ready to put on a show he had calculated exactly the time interval for him to say his line and to look up and smirk at Granger's shocked and terrified face. 

Accordingly he looked up and smir…..started in surprise. A sudden cold washed over him and he felt his stomach plummet and strangely all of this was not unpleasant at all. Soft hues, flowery dress, an outraged face framed in the deepening velvet of the evening sky. 

He dropped his gaze at once and screamed in his head over the pounding of his heart _//bushy hair, bucktoothed mudblood_// over and over again. He had suddenly lost all interest in ants.

He was glad when she started to yell at least he told himself she was yelling when in reality her voice was a bare shocked whisper "you can do Imperio?" it was a question 

"Yes" //_it is because of  walking and not eating for so long_//

"It's illegal." She persisted.

"Uh huh, and your point being?" _// I must have hit my head when I fell, damn Duncan//_

"Stop it" she said her anger finding its way over the disbelief that he could do such an illegal and powerful spell. That too on something so trivial as ants.

"Please Granger, don't tell me you are starting an **Ant Saving Society** now. First "**SPEW**" now "**ASS.**"" He was feeling much better now and smirked at her and the memory of the last minute was being very quickly pushed to oblivion.

"Just stomp them if you want Malfoy but don't do that spell on them. It's ……it's just inhuman to do this" she said. 

"Again your point being?" he asked putting on a slight quizzical expression on his face.

"You'll get put into Azkaban." She stated primly.

"Nah, don't think so. The whole whizarding community is too "**devastated"** over **"the loss of precious young lives**" on "**the greatest attack not only on Hogwarts but on humanity itself**", to care for some underage magic in Ireland. Draco said quoting exaggeratedly words from Cornelius Fudge's pompous speech that Draco had come across in The Parchment. (Ireland's leading newspaper)

He expected her to retaliate but was glad when she didn't. The evening, which seemed to have stretched on for ages, had now totally disappeared and it was dark. 

They sat in silence as from far away they heard the noise of the approaching train. It was coming from the other side of the station and it was visible as a long line of lights slowly making its way towards the cluster of lights, which was the station. 

"C'mon we better get going" Draco said standing up. When Hermione didn't show any sign of getting up he continued impatiently "does the princess wish to be dragged along?"

She got up at once and stood facing him. It was too dark now to see her clearly and only the outline of her face and the paleness of her dress were visible. Not that he needed any light to gauge her expression when she stated in a cold determined voice

 "You are horrible"

With this simple sentence she stormed off in the direction of the station.

Draco smirked in satisfaction as he looked at the figure moving in the shadow-less night. It was nice to see how he could work the "Miss Know It All" into such frenzy especially since….. He chuckled in delight as he walked after the now not stomping away form but one who was trying desperately to find her way in the dark. On the other hand the forgotten ants scuttled to their hole rather surprised, as all they remembered was being ordered on to the rails and then off it by the same soothing voice.

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Draco who had his wand's light to guide him and longer legs soon caught up with Hermione, who had by then lost some of her anger on the utter lack of light.

Once he had caught up with her he had walked along side her at a leisure pace, with his wand's light kept intentionally just enough to light up his way, while not far away Hermione continued to struggle along the rugged path. He started to whistle the most appropriate tune (there was once a stubborn witch) which being popular was known and therefore detested by Hermione. //_I will not ask for his help_// she told herself resolutely even as she stumbled in the dark.

"How many pounds is it to a ticket?" she asked finally to shut him up from whistling.

He continued to whistle annoyingly until she repeated the question again and then putting on a "heard you only now" expression he asked

"Did you just ask me how many weights is it to ticket?"

"Pounds as in muggle money, Malfoy."

"Zilch" he stated coolly 

"What?" asked Hermione stopping in her tracks.

"Zilch as in nothing." he said imitating Hermione from earlier.

"You do understand that tickets even in muggle stations cost money don't you?" //_he would know that wouldn't he? //_

"I don't intend to pay at a muggle station," he said simply raising his voice just a little so that it carried behind to Hermione.

She stumbled after him and mockingly said "ah yes, off course why would the great Malfoy pay when he can instead modify the memories of every single muggle." She stopped suddenly realizing that was exactly what ……… "Wait that's…that's not your plan is it? NO YOU… Just tell me that's not your plan" she finished grabbing his hand to make him stop and look at her.

"No, that's not my plan" he said slowly.

Before Hermione could sigh in relief however he continued " I don't plan to modify the memory of every single muggle at the station, just a few." With that he walked off, leaving Hermione to figure out what exactly he meant.

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Hermione Granger was the sort of moderate who always believed that if just people could see the reason in her words, they would change their attitudes and she set out to contradict Draco in earnest.

"You can't do that Malfoy. They are muggles. According to magic muggle rule one hundred and three "magic on muggles is an extremely huge offense."

Her words had as much effect on him as the words "qudditch is bad for health" would have had on Ron. In the wand light his face contorted into a look of pure disbelief at her words. He seemed ready to sat something about her total lack of sense then seemed to think better of it and went on walking. 

Realizing that talking of muggle protection laws to a muggle hating Malfoy wasn't really a good idea, she tried a different approach.

"Look alright forget the law bit it will never work. It is too complicated. Besides those memory charms and the spells you'll need are too complicated.

As Draco started to explain how he had been doing it since he was a kid to make his nanny think that she had not given him his dessert, Hermione continued to rant, "it is too dangerous Malfoy, you will not do it." 

She spoke with the finality, which sometimes stopped Harry and Ron in their tracks, but it managed to make Draco just roll his eyes and mutter something incoherent about insane woman as he continued to walk towards the station.

"MALFOY" she wailed after him and ran to catch up to the insufferable git in cargo.

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"Now you just listen to me" said Draco heatedly, preventing Hermione from continuing through her example of Gregory Maigiskin from the book **"Disastrous Consequences Of Magic On Muggles"**

They were now very near the station and Draco thought that it would be better to get some sense into her head.

"Look Granger, we have no other choice, we have to get to Dublin and there is no other way to do it. Now walk behind me quietly and please do not be stupid," he said and he was just turning when Hermione called out to him "Malfoy." Looking at his barely in control anger she hurried to say quickly "can't you apparate back to Dumbeldore and tell him I am here?"

"You know I could do that" he said sarcastically drawing closer to her "but there is just this slight problem" he said, "THEY'LL NEVER BELIEVE ME..They will lock me up in that god damn prison before I can say a word."

She flinched slightly at his furiousness but her doubts did not abate one bit, which only helped to make up her mind.

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Stratford between the bigger towns of Athy and Kildare was the sort of place that was always overlooked. A small settlement consisting of around thirty families it was the sort of place where each person knew everyone else. One of the only sources of connection to the outside world was the Stratford Railway Station. It was to this station that Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger made their way.

It was not a very crowded station and the few people who were about were too busy to note the appearance of a lean fair-headed boy and a dark haired girl at the station. The muggle girl, who did notice the boy and smile at him hoping to catch his eye, was disappointed when without a glance in her direction he made his way to the train. 

//_out of Towner's_// she thought dreamily //_wish I could go off with them instead of looking after ma's shop//_

"Old Samuel," the ticket checker who was always prowling around the train had gone on his break and the boy had almost climbed in when the words "ticket please" were heard from behind.

Samuel had come rushing back wheezing under the weight of his own size. The dark haired girl jumped back slightly at his sudden appearance. _//rightly so_// thought the muggle girl. //_old Samuel shouldn't be scarin the life of the sister of his_//(she hoped dreadfully that the girl was his sister)

The boy lighted easily from the train. He then proceeded (or so the muggle girl thought as she could not see his hand) to pull out his wallet to show his tickets   when suddenly his sister stepped in between the boy and old Samuel. 

Her face was set in a determined way but it was the words that came out of her mouth that surprised Martha (and this was the muggle girl's name). Clear, crisp and free of the Irish tint "I am afraid Sir, that we were trying to hitch a ride without tickets. You had better inform your station master." 

Martha would later conclude this incident, the high mark of her career as assistant in her ma's cafeteria in the following words "whoever they were, I can tell you this. The girl must have not lasted an hour in her brother's company. Why he looked absolutely livid."

"He shouldn't have been so angry" she would later add ruefully.

What Martha didn't know and what she never knew was that Draco's look of anger came from the fact that Hermione had taken hold of his wand and spoken out loud their intentions, making the small crowd look up and take notice, thus leaving their escape plan in tatters.

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FROM A LIAR

Reasons why I wrote before my temporary hiatus 

1) Half the chapter was done

2) I was going insane with studying

3) Because I just wanted to

4) Wanted to put in first touches of d/hr

I finished the chapter in record time just so that you could read it. So there. It doesn't mean the next chapter is going to come out any time soon. Because stupid stupid exams still omnipresent.

I wish I could thank all of you who reviewed separately but I can't now. I already spent four hours writing this!!! Love you guys for reviewing

So what do you think? They had to get caught you know. It can't be a spy movie where everything goes smoothly now can it? Next chapter Draco meets muggles.

And most importantly what do you think of Draco's reaction to Hermione? I hope it was okay and not over the top. As you already know I am trying to make it realistic so it has to be slow.

  From an over worked and over harassed

                                                        Kshetra

Ps: (so as to gloat) I got invited to write d/hr valentiny thingy which unfortunately I had to turn down. It said I was good; trouble is I can't believe they would think that. Does it mean I am good or does everyone get invitations like that? (yeah I have as much self confidence as  that of a fly in a spider's web)


	10. Draco Malfoy And The Muggle Connection

**CHAPTER 11** **DRACO MALFOY AND THE MUGGLE CONNECTION **

                  Because I lie better than you tell the truth       

                                                                      James Marsden in Gossip

The moment Draco heard the sound of the door of the stationmaster's room clicking shut; he sprang up from his chair, his wand held high his face livid with rage. Hermione on cue also moved away from him trying to put as much distance between them as possible. She knew offcourse that distances really did not matter when the other person held the wand. 

"You are the most.... **idiotic**.... **bloody** ...**non-brain entity** THAT I HAVE EVER KNOWN" He said spluttering with rage. "I am going to …." 

But Malfoy's threats did not really frighten Hermione. Before his slightest smirk would have raised her caution but now she was far more determined to make him see her point of view.

"There were too many people on the platform Malfoy, they would have seen you using magic" she said shrilly 

"I could have taken care of that," he said indifferently. He was at that moment contemplating what sort of animal he should turn her into, the idea of her as a mate for Neville's toad was starting to appeal to him

"You would have used the Unforgivables on them" she said accusatory whisper.

She was startled slightly when he gave a groan of frustration and put his head in his hands.

 "Granger, I want you to understand this. I was not going to Avada Kedavra them," he said throwing his hands out to show the imaginary people. "Neither was I going to Crucio them, all right. Because I don't know how to do those spells well enough.

 As for Imperio I was just fooling around back there. A simple spell something like a hallucinating spell would have sufficed and we would have been on our way to. …… And why are you staring at me as if I have suddenly sprouted slimy tentacles?" He cut off his ranting  to abruptly  ask her.

She was looking at him with an expression of mild distrust and revulsion. "You said you didn't know the curses well enough, means that you do however know them." She said petulantly.

"Granger, THAT IS SO NOT THE POINT," he said exasperatedly. She, he knew had always been prim and proper but he had somehow reckoned that it was all probably an act to be a model student. The fact that fate had chosen the worst moment to prove him wrong didn't go down well with him and he cursed them along with a string of other people who he felt had something remotely at least to do with his predicament.

"You have got it all wrong Granger and I'll be damned If I have to explain it to a mudblood like you now" he said spitefully. "Look, when the muggle comes in I'll just…"

But Hermione cut in determined. "No, you will not. It's not all right using magic on muggles Malfoy, whatever the reason. They are defenseless and you shouldn't"

//_exploit them?_ // He thought wryly wondering what her words would be if she had chosen to continue. He moved slowly to the other side of the table, his every movement looked down warily by Hermione. Once he reached the table he didn't look at her but instead looked at the table contents. Papers were scattered on it and on the top lay a railway timetable for the month along with a photograph in which no one moved.

He picked up the photograph, stared at it suspiciously, and then shook it to make the woman and the child in the photograph move, when however they continued to smile serenely at him, he put it down in haste. //_some sort of muggle way to keep people stuck in pictures, how horrid._ //

He was desperately racking his brain to come up with something to make Granger agree with him. He couldn't curse the muggle without her agreeing; for god knows what scene she might create. Most probably try and explain to the others in the station how they were wizards. He wished he could just curse her but he knew that was out of the question as the spell detecting tests that were likely to be run on her would surely pick up traces of whatever curse that he might cast on her.

He knew that he had only one option left and he almost smiled at the irony of it all. He would have to persuade the mudblood.

He took a deep breath almost contemplated casting a calming spell on himself then decided against it and started out

"Granger…Hermione," he said making an effort at earnestness. "Don't you want to go back home? Go back to your friends? Even though they are carrot top and potty. You don't want to be stuck here do you? With me? Even though I am the only gorgeous guy you'll ever have the chance to stand this close to again. We could have gone somewhere safe if you hadn't stopped me from casting that spell. Because of your…rashness, stupidity, idiotism, brain retardation we are stuck in a…" he cast his eyes around the small cozy messed up office before he continued " a perfect example of were people without money work." He finished earnestly.

Hermione tried her best not to burst out laughing at his choice of words. She had to hand it to him. No other person would have tried to coax her into submission by glorifying himself and insulting her and her friends in the course of his speech.

"Yes Malfoy……Draco," she said using his very tone "I want to go home but not by your method" she said soothingly knowing very well that he would blow up.

True to her expectations he screamed at her "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO? TELL HIM THE TRUTH AND HOPE HE'LL LET US GO?"

"Yes," she said firmly.

His jaw dropped in disbelief and he was just about to say something which Hermione was in no hurry to hear and so she cut in hastily " as much truth as we can tell him."

As Draco started arguing she continued, "If it doesn't work, we'll just do it your way." 

She knew she was setting herself up by making this offer but she had to at least try.

 Draco seemed bent on arguing but then almost suddenly his mouth twisted into a wicked grin and he said, "deal."

Hermione knew for sure then that she had made a big mistake.

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By the time the door opened they were seated on the chairs. As the door opened Hermione rose out of respect, Draco would have liked to continue his laid back, no care posture before the muggle but for the stern look that Hermione threw at him. He almost smiled as his prediction of how the muggle would look came true. //_he would be a fat stupid muggle._ // And that was exactly how he looked, especially since he wore an oversized Hawaiian shirt. Of course his cheerful face and suppressed smile were completely lost on him. 

Hermione's heart however rose as she saw him. She had been wondering what she would do if she had got someone really cross like Snape, but here was hope.

The man in his mid forties sat down on his chair, glanced up at them, and smiled. "My name is Eoin and though I don't look like it, I am the station master of Stratford Railway Station. Well, A couple of hitch hikers. We don't get many of them here, this being a small station but it sure causes a stir. I had to forgo my holiday for you two, so you better have a good story in store for me." He said folding his hands and looking up at them enquiringly.

Hermione took a deep breath and was just about to start out when suddenly he cut in and said "oh and one more thing. If this is going to be the story about how you were really well off and then were kidnapped by Czechoslovakian circus troops when you were children and when finding out the secret from your dying supposed mother you ran away from the circus, I've heard that one before. I just wanted you to know that I'd like something else, just for variety sake." His tone throughout the wonderful tale was dead serious and it was only now he let out a small smile at Hermione who was now suddenly aware that it would not be easy to fool this man.

Draco blinked, then thought he had heard wrong. Muggles having a sense of humor was unheard off. "They don't have enough brains to understand a joke, Master Malfoy." That had been the assessment of his fourth nanny. (Draco Malfoy had before he was even four seven nannies, each of whom had later on sued Lucius Malfoy for loss of one or more limbs. Lucius Malfoy had on the other hand sued them back (and won) for mental torture to which supposedly his son had been subjected to)

"Er, its…its not like that …sir," "I …..We" stammered Hermione suddenly finding herself lost for words. She would have indeed stopped just then in her effort had not it been for two things. One Hermione Granger was not a looser and two she could never let the pale-faced weasel have his way.

It was this resolve that made Hermione launch into her story with utmost clarity. The same clarity with which she had in her first year convinced the stern Gryffonder head that It had been her idea to go after the troll. She recounted with wonderful detail of how they had "misplaced" their money and how it was vitally important for them to get to Dublin where their parents were waiting for them. Despite her best efforts she was aware of the fact that the story sounded pretty vague and flimsy and once she had finished she waited with baited breath to see whether he would call the Irish police to look up missing children.

Eoin however did no such thing. He had not interrupted even once during the course of the entire narration and he now started asking all the pent up questions.

"Right lets get started then. From where exactly did you come to Stratford?"

"Athy" replied Hermione. The silver painted writing on the train still clear in her mind.

He nodded his head and continued, "So you came in, got down and then realized after the train had left that you had left your wallet inside it. Am I right?" the question this time was directed at Draco.

_// I am answering a muggle, a muggle, a muggle_ // his head screamed as he answered finally "yes."

"I see and your parents trusted you enough to let you come on the next train after them. So they left yesterday? Eh?"

Hermione nodded in assent.

"You understand that the Athy Stratford train is only once a week on Tuesday. So perhaps you could tell me which train they used to go to Dublin yesterday?" Eoin's omnipresent smile widened slightly making the wrinkles near his eyes deepen in mirth.

Draco Malfoy almost grinned triumphantly at Hermione's sudden lack of response. The stupid girl had been to busy trying to make sure that he didn't curse the stupid muggles to have thought through her plan carefully.

Hermione on the other hand felt her heart sink in despair as she realized her thinking was so muddled up that she hadn't thought of this. She had always been proud and not too secretly too, in her ability to think things out clearly but just now when she needed it most, her ability had failed her.

However before she could say anything there came a reply from behind her. 

"They went to Dublin by the Athy-Kildare route." Said Draco, his tone suggesting that it was ordinary for him to know where his imaginary parents were. Eoin looked at Draco for a second then nodded his head to show that he believed him.

Hermione shot him a quick look, which bordered precariously between admiration and disbelief. //_what do you do? Spend your time memorizing train timings in Ireland_? // Her thoughts seemed to relay.

He itched to shoot her an arrogant look and to boast many times over the fact that he had had the brain wave to check the railway timetable on the muggle's table to see the train their supposed parents were traveling in.

He was however prevented from doing this by Eoin who was making his next attack on Hermione.

"So you both are siblings?" he asked shooting a quick look between the two.

"Cousins actually" stated Hermione for Draco's benefit. He had vehemently opposed when Hermione had put forward the suggestion that they pretend to be siblings. When she had pointed out the fact how people would think they were running away together he had screwed up his face in disgust and had pretended to be sick in the wastebasket.

He had finally agreed to pretend to be her very far away cousin on her mother's side who had she assured him a brother working for the richest muggle in the world. (One of her uncle was a software engineer.)

"Cousins? Why isn't that convenient. It explains a lot. There's not the slightest likeness between you two." Eoin said and glanced once more at Hermione and then Draco who for the first time in his life found himself agreeing with a muggle.

"He looks like his father." She said earnestly. "French" she added to make an emphasis on difference even though she was not very sure if there was a big difference between French ferret's father or British ferret's father but anyway.

Eoin seemed to take moment to consider her answer then he again asked, "What is your phone number? Hermione."

A wave of relief washed over Hermione as she told him her phone number clearly, thanking her lucky stars that against all the advice of wannabe liars she had told Eoin her real name.

Draco was acutely aware that the man had picked up a metal rod and was sticking it to his ear. He seemed to press a button for each number Hermione told him. He looked very silly, Draco decided holding a metal piece to his ear. Much to Draco's relief (though he would never admit that) he finally put it down after a short pause.

He looked up at Hermione who was finding it hard to keep her joy in check. "It was your answering machine." He said.

Hermione nodded, fully aware of the message that had been left on her parents' answering machine when they had gone into hiding. "_This is the Granger residence. We have gone on a holiday and won't be back for some time. Please leave…"_ the message had been left so as to not arouse the curiosity of the countless number of muggle friends and patients who were likely to call and from the looks of it, it also added credibility to Hermione's story.

"So…so .do you believe us," said Hermione finally when Eoin didn't ask another question.

"Well," he said and then paused." your story checks out. Some of it anyway. I am however curious as to why exactly didn't you carry any money with you, Hermione?"

Hermione answered almost immediately  "because I don't have any pockets," she said exasperatedly pulling her skirt to prove her point.

Eoin laughed out loud at this and said, "all right, fine, I believe you. Though it still doesn't excuse you from trying to hitch a ride…"

But he stopped short when Draco who had been getting sick and tired of listening to muggle suddenly strode forward. For a fleeting second Hermione thought he was going to curse Eoin but something made her stand still and watch the scene unfold before her.

// _I am standing so close to a muggle, so close, so argh_// "look, we are sorry we tried to hitch a ride all right. Except we really needed to, okay? It was the first time our parents had ever trusted us and we didn't want to screw it up." Draco paused for breath, tired of pronouncing each word out distinctly so that the muggle could make sense out of it. After all it was comman knowledge that muggle brains could only process a single word at a time.

"Here," he said and placed a galleon on the table. It is a real gold coin. We didn't think anyone would take it and we didn't have any …." //_drounds? Frounds_? //  "Pounds." He finished triumphantly, finally finding the right muggle term for money. "Check the coin if you want but it is real."

"A gold coin? Where did you get that from?" Eoin asked picking up the coin and fingering it in his hands. "Galleon" he read out loud the inscription on the back of the coin. "What's that?" he asked. 

It was Hermione who answered quietly," it's a football team in his school. He got that for outstanding performance."

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Ten minute later they were waiting to board the train. Eoin had gone to get the tickets, leaving Draco and Hermione alone on the now almost empty platform. 

Draco Malfoy was feeling elated. So what if the muggle had turned out to be contrary to some of his beliefs, he had been in the end just a greedy, fat muggle. His single gold coin had done the trick. One galleon and the man like any other greedy muggle had been willing to help them.

Hermione Granger however did not share his elation. She was saddened by the fact that out of the million muggles, they had managed to meet one, who panned out to Draco's expectations.

She smiled however as Eoin came forward after having a chat with old Samuel who was still regarding them suspiciously.

"Here," he said, handing Draco an envelope. "And don't loose It." he added with a grin.

Draco took it and was surprised to feel a rather hard object inside. He opened the envelope and stared at the contents for some time silently with Granger peering in from behind whose smile suddenly gained in length.

Draco looked up at Eoin but before he could say a word Eoin explained "I am not so evil as to take away from a boy, his football medal."

"Its alright," said Draco numbly holding out the galleon to Eoin, "I've got many." The weight at his shoulder proof to his statement. Eoin laughed at the comment but didn't take the galleon.

"Eoin, what is the money for?" asked Hermione. In addition to the tickets, there were also a few bills of paper, which Draco realized was muggle money.

"It is a day-night trip to Dublin. You are bound to get hungry." 

When Hermione started to thank him he objected saying slowly, "Please, it is nothing. Though I might work in a place which is a perfect example of where people without money work, I can still afford to send you two, to Dublin." His eyes sparkled with delight at Hermione's sudden realization and Draco's complete obliviousness."

To Draco's complete surprise he found Hermione staring open mouthed at Eoin as if he had suddenly proved the "Roudella's equation of madness." //_what the hell did he say so great? Not like I hadn't said the same thing…/_/  "before." Draco said softly, finishing his thoughts in words.

"You knew." Said Hermione in a strangled whisper looking at Eoin, who was looking rather smug with himself.

"How long were you there?" asked Draco finally

"Not long. Just enough to here you make up your plan but considering that your story is one of the better ones I've hear and also considering from what I heard you planned all this just so that you could go back home. I reckon I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." He said simply shrugging his shoulders.

Both Hermione and Draco stood lost for words as the guard signaled to Eoin that it was time to go. 

"Well," said Eoin withdrawing his hand from his pocket and holding it out to Draco. "Good luck" 

Draco hesitated for a split second before he offered his own hand to Eoin. His third nannies advice of not touching muggles as they transmit contagious diseases still ringing in his head. He stood silent, staring at the golden galleon in his hand as Hermione with a grin hugged Eoin with her Gryffonder over the top thank you.

Then as he climbed up on the train after Hermione, he turned around; his mind made up and said the words, which were almost as alien to him as the person he was saying them to.

"Thank you," 

With that the door closed and they were on their way.

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VERY VERY HAPPY AUTHOR NOTES

That's  right folks. My exams are OVER!!!!!!!! I cannot begin to describe my joy. I did pretty well except in physics but since almost everyone else also did not do that well in it I am darkly contented. You'd think that I'd be a free bird now but decisions, decisions cloud over me. What subjects will you take? What do you wanna do? Which school do you want to go to for the next two years? Yeah and did I mention my results don't come out till June and that I have to write entrance exams to places that I really don't wanna go to. Yeah I know my life, is filled with exams!!!!

Still, I can write now and that's what counts. Thank you so much, all those people who reviewed. Did I do this okay? I knew I wanted Draco to meet a muggle and a nice one to boot but it doesn't mean he'll turn to muggle campaigning. I just wanted to shake his beliefs at the very foundation slightly. 

By the way for record sake kildare and Athy are real places in Ireland (and you thought I was lazy). Do you know my head has been brimming with ideas for new stories and I am dying to write them. Maybe I'll post them after I finish this or perhaps in the middle. Just hope you guys will read and like it too.

                                Yours 

                                       Writing after a long time

                                                        Kshetra 


	11. Curiouser and Curiouser

Huge thanks to my beta reader Scholz03 who is a dictionary, grammar textbook, critic and a lovable creature all combined in one, who should be cloned and sent electronically with every Microsoft word, there is.

CHAPTER 12:

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER

The steady rhythm of the train had set in long ago and outside the train it was pitch black. Draco sat staring out of the window into the nothingness. The compartment was empty, as Hermione had gone to scourge for their food.

Taking advantage of her absence he had already cleaned the compartment using her robes to rid the place of "muggle germs" as he figured that any given day, mudblood was better than muggle. However, even as this thought ran through his head, he looked down at the galleon in his hand uneasily, and then making a fist around it, he scowled and looked back into the darkness.

The compartment door was pulled open at that moment by Hermione, who was feeling this was one of the... wait, the _only_ high point of the "joyride." They hadn't done anything illegal, they were going to be well fed pretty soon, and they were also on their way to Dublin, where if Malfoy proved right, lay their... her ticket home.

She hadn't heard what Draco had said to Eoin, because she had been too eager to find a window seat so as to wave to Eoin, but she did know that Draco Malfoy had found something contrary to his belief, which from the sour expression on his face he did not, in the least, like.

She sat down opposite him and following suit, looked out of the window. Her thoughts drifted to Hogwarts, to Harry, Ron and.....

"Oh my god" the exclamation came out loud before she could stop herself. Draco jumped slightly at her outburst.

He looked at her with curiosity. Her face was twisted in an expression of complete misery.

"What?" he asked, savouring the distress of the mudblood that had put him in such a predicament.

"Crookshanks all alone, poor dear, I shut him up in his cage, so that he wouldn't cause trouble. He must be starving." she said not really caring whom she was saying this to.

"You keep boys with weird names, locked up in cages? Wicked Granger," he said mockingly. He knew that she was talking about a pet owl or something, but to rile her in her present distress seemed heaven.

"Crookshanks, my cat, you idiot," she stated wringing her hands in worry.

His eyes shot up in surprise at how easily she had…well, insulted him. Her words, insults or otherwise had always been laced with caution but this had come out unguarded and normally, and Draco was vaguely pleased and then displeased at being pleased.

"The house elves will look after it," he said soothingly, and then continued with a wild gleam in his eyes as Hermione looked up at him in temporary hope. "Wait, wouldn't that be wrong now? Not like you've paid them or anything." He said and broke out laughing.

Her anxiety was replaced with anger and she started to tell him the finer points of S.P.E.W when Draco suddenly interrupted asking,

"Granger, do muggles keep horses?"

"Huh?"

"Horses…you know, big; lots of hair; large brilliant teeth; a long face; a beast of burden…." He stopped short then suddenly looking at her, he continued hardly able to keep his delight in check, "wait…that sounds like you. Let me improvise."

"Four legged animal, a tail…."

Looking at her mutinous expression and given the fact that he was, at the moment, very much trapped in a muggle world with only the mudblood for aid, he decided not to continue in that vein and instead asked her, "Well, do or do not muggles keep horses?"

"Yes," she offered finally. Though very much miffed at him, it was the first time Malfoy had voluntarily ever started a conversation with her and she was curious to know what he would say.

"Well, do muggles pay horses?" he asked.

She at once understood where his talk was leading to and she instantly flew into defensive mode. "Oh don't you even go there; there are a lot of differences between horses and house elves."

"Really, but don't they both work?" he argued, shrugging. The concept of doing work, especially manual work, was something Draco Malfoy had not even dreamt of, that is, _until now, when that stupid mudblood ruined my plans, _he thought. He tried to get worked up enough to take Granger, at wand point, to his father and confess that his thought process had been screwed up by her incessant brain-numbing ranting.

"House elves have feelings, all right, and besides, horses are …mostly well taken care of and…" she stopped at a loss for words.

"And enslaved?" Draco prompted. "Elves aren't, you know? Enslaved—they come begging on their knees to be taken in."

"But Malfoy house elves, they…they can talk, they feel." She said pleading to an emotion which she didn't believe the boy before her possessed.

"And who says horses can't feel? Besides," he said, glad to have worked her up so much, which he hoped would add to her misery. "House elves are too weak; your freeing them will never be taken seriously. If you really want to free something, you have to free something big, something that people would take notice of like dragons or something," he said with perfect composure.

For a moment she was too astonished to speak, but then she said incredulously, "Why would anyone in their right mind want to free dragons? We would have to contend with creatures the size of ten story buildings, flying in the sky, making roasts of all of us."

Draco opened his mouth to argue but thought better of it as the compartment door was again pulled open, this time by a man who brought in their food. Draco stared at the muggle suspiciously and then looked at the food even more suspiciously.

He poked his food around and then cast his eyes at Hermione as if daring her to eat it.

She rolled her eyes at his suspicion, and without a word, began to eat. She knew she would need all of her energy to tackle Malfoy into answering her questions.

Hermione suppressed her grin at seeing Draco, at last, bow down to his hunger and begin to eat. She knew that if it wasn't for his famished state, he would not have touched that food, and to see Draco Malfoy stoop to a level which he considered beneath him, was entertaining, to say the least. She didn't comment, however, and busied herself with her food.

Draco was the first to finish his food and, still being hungry, he continued to stare at her intently, with an expressionless face, as she ate. It was a strategy he had learned from Crabbe and Goyle who would stare intently at someone eating until he or she, in discomfort, abandoned their food, at which his two overweight cronies would promptly take over.

But unfortunately for Draco, there was no such luck. One of the boons and banes of Hermione Granger was her complete obliviousness to her physical surroundings. She was very capable in finding layers of meaning in a person's words but was completely clueless when it came to being observant of other's physical actions. It had been because of this that it was not until Victor Krum had asked her out that she figured out why he had hung around so much in the library.

"Malfoy, can I ask you something?" Hermione suddenly asked, looking up and still not noticing that Draco had been looking at her.

He groaned loudly at this and, annoyed, said, "Give it a rest, Granger. I said three out of ten and you ask so many at once that, really, I can't keep count."

"That's your problem and," she said hurriedly, seeing that Draco was going to say no. "And I'll ask only these, today. Plus, for answering my questions you will also receive the first prize of a juicy red apple." She finished with an imitation of a muggle game show host, which was, needless to say, completely lost on Draco.

His eyes narrowed in contempt looking at the apple she had in her hand, branding it in one part of his head as "mudblood apple," even as another part of his head, the one in charge of his basic need of gorging, told him to grab it out of her hand.

However, before he could put his thoughts into action, Hermione, upon seeing him silent, launched in at once.

"Right," she said taking a deep breath. Talking with Malfoy was, after all, a daunting task.

"Has…has your father ever… I mean, sort of…?" stuttered Hermione, finding it hard to put her thoughts into words without setting off Malfoy's quick temper and wishing desperately for a brief second (a very brief second) that she had Rita Skeeter's gift of talking.

"Danced naked round the house?" supplied Draco thoughtfully. "Nah, not that I am aware of," looking at Hermione's flabbergasted expression he smirked and said "Spit it out, Granger."

"Has he ever …beaten you?" she said bravely forcing herself to look at him.

His grey eyes held a humour, which was magnified in the smirk that he had donned.

"Yes," he said and then, looking at her shocked expression, he continued exasperatedly, "For Merlin's sake, would you stop looking like that? Of course he's hit me. He's my father, remember, and I wasn't exactly a model child. What were you expecting? That he ties me up in our dungeons and repeatedly curses me with _Crucio_?"

Then looking at Hermione's rather guilty expression, the humour left his face and it was with a cold voice that he continued, "That's what you thought, wasn't it? For a dumb Gryffonder, you sure have a lot of imagination, Granger," he scoffed.

She guiltily crossed off "abusive father" from her mental list of "**Why Draco Malfoy Does Not Want To Be A Death Eater.**"

"Fine, next question"

"I am sick of your questions."

_no, no don't ask that question. He'll never answer that_She ignored her own sane mind as she asked, "Does…_did_ your father love your mum?"

He looked at her with raised eyebrows and his sense of humour returned, as he asked her, "Really, Granger, you can't be that naïve, where the hell do you think I came from, a spell?"

"WHAT I MEANT WAS…" she said blushing angrily, raising her voice above his sniggers, "whether they were in love." She forced herself to look at him, who was pleased with himself for making her look so…uncomfortable, _not pretty, but very uncomfortable_, he told himself resolutely.

"Now they would know that, wouldn't they?"

"What do you think?"

He rolled his eyes at her and then, stretching like a cat, he linked his hands behind his head and sat back, as if in deep thought.

"Well, what's your answer?" she asked briskly, impatient to hear his answer and uncomfortable somehow of his ease.

He seemed inclined to make a scathing reply, but then realizing that she wouldn't let him off the hook, he answered half heartedly "Well, the first day I did magic I caught them snogging. If that counts for love, sure they were in love...badly in love," he added, scrunching his nose in distaste, as if the thought brought forward unwanted images.

"Is that connected?" she asked.

"What?"

"The first day you did magic and your parents…you know," she said. Somehow the idea of evil incarnate Lucius Malfoy snogging… was very …human. It was better if she didn't think about it.

He grinned like a Cheshire cat as he answered, "I was four or five years old and I walked into the third parlour, and there they were, well, snogging." He laughed again and then continued, "For some strange reason I came up with the notion that father was killing her."

"What did you do?" she asked, knowing magic in some way was connected with it.

"My father was forced into running at least ten times around the house chased by a screaming portrait."

"He was afraid of a portrait?" She asked wonderingly.

"It was his mother's portrait. I can still hear Nana's voice screeching, "_How dare you, Lucius Malfoy! Haven't I taught you better? Kissing my daughter-in-law in the living room, like that!"_"

As Hermione burst out laughing, Draco Malfoy, to say the least, was surprised with himself. _What the hell am I thinking, talking to her like that? _He remembered quite clearly that he had promised to make it a miserable time for Granger, and here he was making her laugh.

"Are there any more questions?" Draco coldly asked, trying to mend his mistake.

Hermione could sense the change in him, but she was still quite gratified by the fact that he had loosened up just seconds before.

"Was your father angry?"

"No, just glad I could do magic."

"Oh," she said. Her mental list was becoming shorter and shorter, "Malfoy, last one."

"Oh, I can hardly wait," he drawled sarcastically.

"Do you love your father?" she asked, knowing she was aiming at the unattainable.

For some time she thought that he had not heard her but then he abruptly asked, "Do you love yours, Granger? Do you love _your_ father?"

"Yes," it was almost reflexive.

"Well then you know how I feel." His voice could have chilled the Artic ice.

She looked down at her hands, which still held the uneaten apple. It was getting harder and harder to fit the new found attributes of Malfoy Senior in between her prejudices against the man. Her rock solid assumptions were threatened by Draco's answers and it was to resolve this internal argument that she spoke out the words,

"But he is evil."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she gasped. She hadn't meant to say it out loud.

She waited for Malfoy to say something cutting, but was even more worried when he suddenly leaned forward from his seat with his hands outstretched. She had a wild feeling that he might strangle her to death.

_I should get up and run_. Her mind told her calmly. But like a deer caught in headlights, she sat still.

She jumped slightly as she felt his fingers graze against her hands and then, even as her quick mind processed what he was doing; he had snatched the apple out of her hand.

As she looked at him with a mixture of relief and embarrassment, he sat back on his seat and then giving her a smile, which hardly reached his eyes, he said in a quiet mocking tone.

"Ten points to Gryffindor, for stating the obvious."

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REALLY SHOULDN'T WRITE THIS AS EVERY ONES VERY ANGRY WITH ME FOR UPDATING SO LATE AND I KNOW EVERYONES CURSING ME FOR TAKING SO LONG THAT THEY REALLY DON'T CARE FOR THE REASONS

Hmm, would you believe me if I said that I got hit on my head by an antique clock and thought I was a clock for around two weeks whereupon I was taken for intensive therapy in my homeland where I was convinced by my great brood of cousins that my name is not Tick tock and instead I am the pesky irritating female who comes up with these really lame excuses for being late with posting on fanfiction.net.

Actually the antique clock happens to be the bloody fork in the road. The whole nine yards of what I want to do for the rest of my life. Had some illusion of being rescued from living on earth by really gorgeous aliens to be made their goddess incarnate but since that's not going to happen in the near future, have decided to take biology, physics and chemistry, for the next two years and after that its either med school or physics teacher to really cantankerous fourth graders. (Why me?) Anyway now that I have enlightened you to one reason as to why I was late, the other is that we shifted houses during which my family discovered how much trash we had accumulated over the three years spent living in the same place. Plus after a whole month of no and yes my parents finally decided to go and visit theirs (also mine) huge family. All of whom are sort of concentrated in this one place. So it took us two days to get there and two days to get back in between that we had to visit every aunt, niece and cousin all of whom want to know how I did in my exams. (Did I tell you the results are coming out this week? Oh joy)

And then my beta reader had some problem with her Internet thingy and well now that's enough reasons as to why I am late.

TO MY DEAR READERS (who, I know have all skipped the before part)

Now go and hit that go button and write your heart out. And I'll try and put out the next chapter much faster. (Ducks before anyone can fling nameless heavy articles at me.)

Love

Tick tock gah I mean Kshetra

Ps: from now on if you ever want to find out when the new chapter can be expected or why the hell it's not yet put up, click on my name and read what's written in that bio data column (the first few lines will suffice, the rest is mostly crap.)

ps: almost forgot,

A big thanks to scholz03 ( obviously ), magicsparkle1, Fluff, Sweet Nightmares, Riles ("she writes". I forgot to tell you how much I love that line), love2045, glacial, flame dancer077 (it was so nice of you to review twice) NeLLy (blatant flatterer, not that I really mind), kagie- chan (it was so nice to see you again), sakura -syaoran2, charolastras, jarie1019 (three new reviewers. Be nice and review again so I can count you as old.)


	12. The Railway Children

Some things so as to not to confuse. Italics usually pertain to thoughts. 8 (flashback)8

CHAPTER 13

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

_Q: Were shall we go?_

_ A: To the railway._

------- E Nesbit (the railway children)

Her pale white dress stood out against the dark black robes he wore, his silvery head was bent, almost touching her forehead. She then heard his voice even though his lips didn't move "I lied to you, Hermione."

He then put out his arm for her to see. Involuntarily even though her head was screaming against her impending action, she rolled the sleeve of his robe up, past his elbow. There, on his perfectly flawless skin in red dye it was slashed, **S.P.E.W.**

"Draco," she gasped, trying to comprehend what it all meant. Had she somehow managed to reform him to such an extent that he had taken it upon himself to be her society's advertising board, quite literally? She looked up at him in puzzlement, suddenly becoming aware of how close they were standing and she tried unsuccessfully to shy away from his fingers, which were lightly tracing a pattern down her neck.

A twisted sad smile sprang up on his lips at her action and much to Hermione's relief and surprisingly a small amount of dismay, he broke the contact, straightened and answered with a rueful sigh, Hermione's unasked question "I belong to the **"SOCIETY OF PEOPLE EATING WEASELS**." I am sorry Hermione but I ate Ron."

With that he disappeared and Hermione Granger opened her eyes to stare unfocusedly at the velvet covering of her four-poster bed.

'Velvet covering? Wait, the train.'

She sat up at once panting for breath as the full realization of her dream hit her. 'Dream…stupid…stupid dream'

"Society of people eating weasels" she said out loud and chuckled quietly.

'I must be really losing it.'

The compartment was still dark owing to the dark glass spell that Draco had insisted on casting the previous night.

8

(" I will not have muggles staring at me through the window, Granger"

"Oh come on Malfoy, They wont notice you. You really are underestimating muggle zoos. Ferrets are a pretty comman sight"

"One more comment, Granger and I'll prove to you that you were underestimating the pain caused by my footwear coming in contact with your arse")

8

Her internal clock however ascertained it was late morning.

She turned her gaze at the sleeping form, which had eaten Ron in her dream.

She grinned at how mortified he would be if his Slytherin pals could see him right now.

"Draco Malfoy in muggle clothes. Who would have thought?" she murmured to herself. The words, she decided had a nice ring to it and somewhere in her head the unbidden thought sprang up that he would make a good model for whatever brand of muggle clothes he was wearing.

Maybe it was because of his lack of hostility due to his sleep-induced state that a memory resurfaced in her mind, that of a conversation not long ago between Lavender and Parvati, in her dorm room which she had studiously tried to ignore.

For some reason the talk had revolved around "the most snogable boys in hogwarts" and Hermione had been disgusted to hear Lavender say with a conspiratory giggle "if Malfoy wasn't such a cold hearted, conceited, scum of the Slytherin jerk, I'd snog him senseless."

She remembered having pulled a face and having remarked with all the grace of a ten year old, "Ew, how can you?...gross…he's so…"

"Attractive?" Parvati had said mischievously.

"Repulsive" that had been her answer and though it had earned her the nickname of "Saint Hermione" her opinion had not changed.

'And I would still say the same thing.' She added as a footnote to the memory.

She continued to stare at him almost blandly, musing over, how much like his father he was already in appearance, wondering whether he had inherited anything other than his hair from his mother.

Her eyes fell on the silver chain round his neck and then at the strange artefact attached to it. Her natural curiosity made her lean forward to take a better look at it.

Unfortunately at that precise moment Draco Malfoy opened his eyes blearily, stared at her for a full second without the slightest look of recognition and then screamed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Its not funny Granger, so I suggest you shut up." Draco Malfoy's warning fell on deaf ears as Hermione continued to giggle helplessly.

"I can't believe that you screamed! And the award this year for the most girly scream goes to none other than Draco Malfoy, albino extraordinaire." She was never going to let him live this down.

He flushed a degree more crimson but said with every ounce of dignity that he could muster

"My scream was NOT girly."

"No, ofcourse not, your scream was very MANLY. Right up there with Godric's and Genghis Khan's war cry.

"Oh, shut up Granger. Try looking in the mirror right when you wake up and you'll know you're the stuff nightmares are made of."

This comment shut her up. Feminine vanity though very much diminished in Hermione's character was not completely absent and his comment did strike some chord of it. '_What do you care what he says?'_ Some part of her conscience chided her.

"So where do we go from Dublin?" she finally asked him, not wanting him to know that his comment had in anyway affected her.

Glad that the current topic had been dropped Draco responded "one of those L.F.F places. I went there yesterday, they'd surely have a way to get to the nearest whizarding district in Dublin."

'_GAH, I HATE HIM_' her head screamed. He had mentioned the name as if he had been certain of her knowledge of the existence of such a place when the truth was she had not slightest idea what L.F.F stood for.

Her curiosity soon overcame her reticence and she blurted out "what is L.F.F?"

The moment he looked at her she knew he would never let this go and it was probably this factor that drove her to speak up again. "Look, all right. You don't have to say it. I'll say it for you. Granger, what a surprise! The Miss Know It All is asking Draco Malfoy doubts? The whole whizarding community will be left reeling in shock." She paused for breath and then added "there! Are you happy now?"

She hadn't really meant to say all that. But for the last three days she had been frustrated beyond belief. Though the name "miss know it all" had irked her at times, it had also been her source of pride for years. People depended on her for answers, for explanations. She was always relied on to understand the problem at hand and here she was with no idea of what the scum before her was talking about.

Draco Malfoy fought arduously to keep his face from mirroring the glee he felt at her declaration. Making her lose control, had somewhere along the way become a source of amusement for him and even though it had caused him physical pain more than once he was still ready to undergo all that just to see her out of control and wild with anger. His brain worked at a frenzy to exploit her comment, and he finally said patronizingly

"Actually Granger, what I was going to say is that L.F.F stand for Lost And Found Foundation which is an international organization committed to helping stranded wizards stuck in muggle places across the globe. I was also going to add that the reason you don't know of this is because it's not mentioned yet in print and it's the sort of thing that every wizard comes to know of… that is wizards from wizarding families." He said, the pucker at the end of his lips deepening as his smirk widened.

"Well?" asked Hermione, waiting for what was to follow.

"Well what?" asked Draco patronizingly enquiring.

"Aren't you going to continue, about how it is because I am a mudblood that I don't know all this and how this is a perfect example as to why you are superior to me?"

She said bitterly.

He looked at her with puzzlement so well induced that it made Hermione almost doubt her presumptions of him. Ofcourse his answer laid her qualms to rest.

"No, not really. What, I was, going to, tell you, is that you have a serious snoring problem. The whole night I swear you sounded like a grizzly bear with a sinus problem."

He said diplomatically.

_'I hate him'_ Hermione Granger thought glumly.

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"Malfoy, could…could I ask you something?" asked Hermione, swallowing her pride and her resolve of minutes ago of not uttering a word to Draco Malfoy for the rest of her life.

"Would my saying no, really make a difference?" he asked noncommittally.

"Why exactly did you travel on a muggle train before?" Hermione asked, ignoring Draco's comment.

He shook his head in exasperation but answered out of boredom "my mother wanted me to realize how nice muggle people were. She hoped that I would be so reformed that I would never choose to be a death eater.

"What? I mean …that's why you went like really?" Hermione asked disbelievingly

"No," answered Draco with a smile. "Actually my mother wanted me to realize how dumb muggle people were. First hand knowledge is considered very important in my family, Granger. Especially when you are dealing with your enemy. Exactly why I think you should share a tete a tete with Voldemort. You'll have a lot of topics to share. You two have a startling resemblance."

He had not really ever seen Voldemort, except if you counted the time back in the Forbidden Forest, when he had taken off, faster than one could say "qudditch." Still, from what he had heard he figured Voldemort wouldn't be winning any beauty contest any time soon, unless "red eyed, snake faced look" came in fashion.

"How come you say that?" asked Hermione. A thought had suddenly struck her.

"Because it's true. The same facial deformity, the same…"

"His name, you dingbat. You never used to say his name out loud in school." She cut in.

He was slightly perturbed that his insult hadn't really made an impact. He was even more disturbed that she had to go and pick at things he didn't really feel like explaining or thinking about. Things were too complex and then again it would appear to others to be pretty simple.

"Just do." He finally said.

"What did you do in preparation? Repeat his name fifty times under your breath to see if you would combust in flames or did you whimper out his name and then hide in your bed afraid that lightning would strike you dead." She asked. She knew many Hogwarts students, who indeed did believe in these atrocious superstitious beliefs, which revolved around thinking or saying out the Dark Lord's name and she was curious as to what a Death eater's son believed.

"Ofcourse not" he said indignantly.

Seeing Hermione's sceptical look, he admitted grudgingly.

"I had Crabbe do the first and Goyle the second."

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"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?" Draco Malfoy's loud and rather apprehensive tone made Hermione snap back into attention.

She had been again staring at the chain that hung around Draco's neck. She could only slightly make out the pendant as it was halfway wedged into his collar and her curiosity to figure out what it was had made her completely zone off. She had her whole concentration focussed on it, which was broken by his voice.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at it.

He looked down at himself, and then said hesitantly "er, I think it's generally called the chest or I guess you could call it the torso or the tr…"

She gave an impatient sigh at his answer and getting up, she moved towards him and without the slightest hesitation picked up the lyncathe that she now recognized.

"Oh that." Said Draco rather relieved. "It's a lyncathe."

"Is it genuine?" She asked quietly, fingering the ancient spells that were engraved on it. She was wholly fascinated by it and couldn't help but envy Draco for owning something so magical.

"Ofcourse its real. It was a present from my father. You think, that he would ever send me something so worthless as a cheap imitation? I would desperately like that Werewolf Professor to make a reappearance, we'll know his greatest fear isn't the moon after all." Said Draco gleefully.

"His name, is Lupin," said Hermione. She let go of the lyncathe and stared at him crossly.

"And is that supposed to change the fact that he is a werewolf, Granger?" asked Draco smiling up disarmingly at her.

She would have glared at him and ticked him off, except the expression on his face…made her feel otherwise. There was that cheeky, fiendish glee on his face, which she had seen countless times on the face of the Weasley twins, but she had never found it so agreeable. She felt uneasy standing so close to him and this feeling brought with it unwanted memories of her dream.

He had expected her to start preaching and had been totally prepared for it. But when he saw the distracted look that she gave him, the wild panic that he had felt before back in the woods began to emerge. He didn't try to process what he felt, he just knew the only way to stop the wild panic that he felt was to have her move away. He saw she was distracted and using it to is advantage he said loudly

"EARTH TO GRANGER, LOST IN LUST FILLED DREAMS OF ME!" This well placed comment of Draco had its desired effect and Hermione stumbled back from him, slightly dazed and confused yet very much indignant at his comment.

"I WAS NOT!" she said angrily, yet blushing as images of her dream resurfaced in her mind. '_Stupid, stupid dream'_

"That's what they all say. I know what you were thinking; I am too good to be true. Like I said it's all right, that you find it hard to take your eyes off of me," He said smugly. He had no clue of what Hermione had felt and did not in the least think that these were her thoughts, but this was what he was supposed to be doing. Teasing and harassing her was what he was meant to do, having a bloody panic attack for all the wrong reasons when she was close to him was not what he was supposed to do.

"You are too full of yourself to be real." Scoffed Hermione, glad that all she felt like doing now was smacking his smug smile away. "What I was actually thinking was that you really should not be the one to talk. You've got a vampire for a godfather, you have no right to think low of Professor Lupin."

"There's a difference between the two. Werewolves are more dangerous as one bite from a werewolf and not even Sleakeasy's hair potion would solve your fur problem on a full moon night. Chances of turning into a vampire are remote, a vampire bites you and all you have to worry about is blood loss and…."

"The almost certainty of ending up dead?" Finished Hermione questioningly.

"Hey, better dead than ugly. Which brings us to the question as to why exactly are you still alive?" Said Draco Malfoy good-naturedly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I AM SO BORED," Draco Malfoy wailed for like the hundredth time.

Hermione Granger groaned inwardly. The train journey seemed to go on indefinitely and in such unflattering company, Hermione felt it would never ever end. Ofcourse the unflattering company in question seemed to be in the same state of boredom as her, however unlike her, he seemed to be bent on announcing to the whole world his displeasure and also the cause of it.

"This is all your fault," he said sullenly, looking every bit a spoilt four years old

"My fault? You're the Mister "I Am So Pure-blooded That I Can't Have Decent Conversation For Less than five seconds", not me." She spat angrily.

"Yeah right Miss "I Am So Clever That No One Can Ever Be Right Other Than Me.""

He said rolling his eyes.

" I do not think that."

"You do too."

"You're just trying to get me angry, aren't you?" she said accusingly.

'_That's the idea_' "no I am just trying to have a _decent conversation_," said Draco. A sickeningly sweet smile adorned his face.

'_Yeah right_' " Well then, I think you're _right_. Lets have a decent conversation." Hermione shot back.

His infuriating smile gained in length and then he asked pleasantly, "So who are you shagging, Weasley or Potter?"

"THAT IS YOUR IDEA OF A DECENT CONVERSATION?" Shouted Hermione.

"Its just a question." He said, his pleasant manner not in the least wavering before Hermione who seemed bent at glowering him to his death.

When he saw that she would never answer, he continued with a sigh, "for Merlin's sake Granger, don't look at me as if I have committed the ultimate sin. There's a bet between the Ravenclaws which keeps increasing, as to who exactly is your boyfriend Weasley or Potter?"

Hermione sat dumbstruck, finding it hard to believe. She could imagine the Slytherin's doing something like that but the Ravenclaws?"

"You're lying," she said stiffly.

"No, I am not." He said cheerfully.

"Ravenclaws hate you, did you know that?" said Draco prompting even more cheerfully. This was after all the perfect way to kill his boredom.

He continued taking advantage of her surprise "you don't know, do you? They hate the fact that you beat them in every class and if they ever decide to turn on you, God it'll make an interesting spectacle."

"You have no idea what you are talking about. I have runes and arithmacy with them and unlike you, they are nice." She muttered darkly.

Draco and his cronies had their seats behind her in the arithmacy classes and she had found the weirdest things attached to her hair at the end of each class, the worst being a pixie, which kept shouting, "I found my nest."

"Pshaw, that's all an act. They're just waiting for the golden trio to break up so that they can pick at the pieces." He said serenely, knowing very well that Hermione would take the bait.

"Break up?" she asked surprised.

He put on an exaggerated expression of surprise and then continued in a tone of disbelief

"Don't tell me you don't know Granger, everyone knows your so called friendship has been unsteady since last year."

"You have no…wait, I am not going to be pulled into this conversation with you." She said primly, switching to ignore Malfoy Mode.

"Go on Granger, deny what I am saying. Fifth year, you and your perfect friends had a row every other day and…"

"Friends fight Malfoy, your friends are ofcourse too dumb to reciprocate." Cut in Hermione, his words were too true for comfort.

"I was talking about fifth year Granger. This year ofcourse you fell down one more level. Everyone sees its artificial now. You're just acting at being friends now, for old times sake." He said shrewdly.

"It doest concern you, Malfoy." She mumbled softly.

"Ha, so I am right," drawled Draco, smirking.

"Just shut up." She said fiercely, trying to keep angry tears from spilling.

Miraculously enough he stopped and instead went back to humming some merry song, which luckily didn't reach her ears leaving her to sort through her unsure thoughts.

'Was it true? What he had said? Fifth year had been a nightmare. Harry had been so angry, Ron so subsided and she had been so right. She had been too right. So right, that she wished she had been wrong.

Sixth at first had seemed to be normal again and yet somehow things had changed. Harry had grown more and more quiet, immersing himself in training Dumbeldore's Army and qudditch. He talked less and less to Hermione and she knew why. She had been right about Sirius and Harry felt guilty for not listening to her.

She had felt hurt herself and she had completely immersed herself in her studies, leaving only Ron to shuttle between them. Now looking back after Draco's taunting words she knew she would have acted differently.

'_She would act differently…_' she corrected herself with a smile. '_Once she was back_.'

With this resolve made she looked at Draco whose jubilant smirk faltered as he saw her smile.

Still smiling she continued artlessly "you know, for once in your life, you are actually right. Thank you for that wake up call. But I was wondering Draco," and here she sounded frightfully similar to Draco.

"How many friends are you going to have now that you have said no to your dear father? Truth is, you never made friends because of who you were but because of where you came from. You may be able to prove you aren't a death eater to my side Draco, but truth is you'll still have no friends on my side and considering you have just bid adieu to your own side, truth is you have no friends there as well. Truth is, Draco," she said, getting up as she spoke. "You are now officially friendless."

With this jaunty comment and a smirk in place she walked out of the compartment leaving Draco to figure out exactly when the tables had turned.

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Ofcourse once she had found herself outside the compartment she had no clue as to what to do next. She couldn't really march back in, just then. So instead she contented herself in staring out of the small window in the train corridor.

Soon enough jubilation faded and she felt for some reason guilt at what she had said. The constant rattling of the train below her feet only added to her sense of unease.

It was weird that she should feel sorry of saying just one slighting comment while Draco felt no remorse in saying hundreds.

"He is a bigoted, selfish, prig and deserves much more than what I said." She told herself resolutely. '_But then why am I feeling sorry?_'

Her little speech had been a shocker for Draco. He had ofcourse known that he would lose his friends, but it had not really bothered him much. Not much love was lost after all between him, Crabbe and Goyle. But the idea of not having a single friend had not entered his head, not that he really believed in what she had said.

"As long as one has money one can find friends." He told himself contemptuously.

He was however still very much angry at Granger and he adopted an indifferent attitude, refusing to even acknowledge her presence when she finally crept in and acting as Hermione felt in every way like a spoilt brat whose just been punished.

They sat in that awkward silence until suddenly the countryside gave way to a clear expanse of blue, which completely dominated the scene. It was shimmering in the afternoon sun and seemed filled with a million sparklers.

"Oh my God, Malfoy look the sea," the words came out in a rush, her inhibitions being completely drowned in pleasant surprise.

'_Why in the world is she so excited? It's just the bloody Irish Sea_.' He grumbled inwardly. He badly wanted to comment on her unwanted enthusiasm but wasn't yet ready to drop his sullen mood.

"You know," said Hermione, still watching the shimmering mass of water, which was now fast disappearing from their view as the train once again, moved inland. "When I was a kid I could never believe that beyond the horizon there was just more water. I used to always imagine what would be beyond all that space and distance."

"Nausea," answered Draco before he could stop himself.

She smiled at his comment and gleefully mouthed, "I knew you could not have stopped yourself from making a sarcastic comment. I knew it."

"I was telling the truth." He said stiffly, mildly alarmed that she'd gauged him well.

"Six hours on a ship and you'd be calling for Voldemort to come and rescue you."

"You speak as if from experience, let me guess pure-bloodedness doesn't stop one from being sea sick." She mocked, though she was inwardly pleased he was back to normal.

"And I see mudbloodedness stops you from being clever. I was talking about you. Father used to take me on our yacht ever since I was a little boy and not even a storm could make me sick."

"Pity, you might have thrown up some of your pompous insides in the process." She retaliated.

He fell silent for a second and then much to Hermione's surprise he gave out a low chuckle and as he looked at her, his eyes held so much mirth and merriment that it seemed impossible that this was the same boy who had always had a sneer and a look of malice reserved for her.

"You know, we could go on like this for hours?" he said with another chuckle.

It was true and she herself fought the urge to smile. Tit for tat, for three days that was all they had been doing.

They fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts even as it was announced that they were nearing Heuston**, **the railway station in Dublin.

It was Hermione who broke the silence; a thought had been nagging her brain ever since morning and she had a faint hope that Draco might just give an answer under the influence of his momentary good humour.

"Draco?" It was weird using his name in a not sarcastic or patronizing context.

"What?" he asked easily, his whole attention being focused outside, on the rapidly changing landscape. Trees and open ground had long ago given way to industrialized sectors, and he saw more and more people, as the train flashed past them.

"Remember today morning when you screamed?" she ventured tentatively. Seeing him scowl at her, she continued hurriedly. "What did you think I was? A nightmare?"

He knew he should just lie but remembering how she had slightly flinched when he had likened her to a nightmare in the morning he decided to tell the truth, some of it anyway.

"I thought you were the Befuddler. There I've said it. Laugh away." He waved his hand dismissively for her to begin.

"What's a Befuddler?" Asked Hermione, even as the announcement rang out for the passengers to check for their belongings.

For once he was actually surprised at her lack of knowledge.

"Oh come on Granger, everyone knows who the Befuddler is." He said exasperated at her sudden stupidity.

She looked at him in surprise and then scowled as she figured out his motive. "I guess this is another one of your lessons?" Hermione said icily. She had to hand it over to him. He never let her forget.

"What? Granger, stop talking nonsense, all right." He said exasperatedly, peering out in alarm at the platform, which was flooded with people. '_Muggles'_ his brain corrected.

"It's a way of showing the difference isn't it? Befuddler is something only pureblooded wizards know. Right?" Spat Hermione, in disdain.

It was then that it hit him. Befuddler was after all just a wizard myth and ofcourse Hermione wouldn't know about it. This knowledge just before the beginning of their conversation would have delighted him but now it left him feeling cold. How could he have forgotten? How could he have forgotten what she was even for so brief an interval? "A mudblood", when in the world had that stopped featuring as the first thought that flashed in his head when he spoke to her.

Seeing that she was still waiting for an answer he said in a quiet subsided tone masking the sudden anxiety he felt for having forgotten such a major flaw, which made up Hermione Granger.

"Befuddler is a character from this bedtime story which I heard when I was kid and the Befuddler is this witch with a brown mane and dark brown eyes who would steal away the magic from wizard children and use it for her own. That's it."

He looked at her, carefully repeating in his head each and every flaw of her persona even as Hermione unaware of his internal upheaval fought her impulse to laugh outright.

"Let me get this straight." She said grinning. "You were scared of a **_bedtime story_**?"

"It was a SCARYbedtime story. OKAY?" He shouted, the embarrassment of his confession finally catching up to him.

He instantly ofcourse regretted his choice of words but the damage was already done. Even as the train stopped at the Heuston station, Hermione was engaged in a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Well that was the longest chapter till date and also the one that I found hardest to write.

I guess it was because of the fact that it has bits and pieces of conversations that took place over a length of time from somewhere in the morning till afternoon. You can't expect them to talk all the time and on the other hand no one can stay completely silent either. I am so in love with hearing Draco and Hermione argue that I don't have the heart to have them like each other. Is that a bad thing?

Oh and before I forget I really have to mention that the line_, "I used to always imagine what would be beyond all that space and distance."_

_"Nausea," answered Draco" _is a slightly altered version of a line from the exceedingly weird and wonderfully gorgeous series Farscape and "_You sounded like a grizzly bear with a sinus problem." _Is something_ I_ heard in a Woody Allen movie even though I think it's a pretty comman retort.

Befuddler is just something I made up from the root word "befuddle" and I guess I want it to roughly mean confuser which isn't really word but comes from confuse (you get the idea, don't you?)

If the chapter has mistakes you'll have to please bear with it. I am again without a beta reader and it may take some time to sort things out.

Anyway so what do you think? Please do review. The more you review the more I feel like writing.

Oh and on a personal note I got my results of that frightfully horrid exams. I've done pretty well except my mother has been muttering about wasted potential but I'll be damned if I care. Have scored the highest in English. I know "how in the world with your spelling and grammar?" But see, I am pretty good at it when it comes to answering question papers plus did a wonderful literature paper and Julius Caesar was a blast to write. Did second best in science (can you believe that I actually did well in physics! How great is that?).

Hmm, that's it I guess. Next chapter will be smaller I think. It features a lot more of Dublin and I have to go find stuff about the city.

Bye

Kshetra

And a case of butterbeer and all my gratitude to all those who reviewed. **Magic sparkle 1**,**jarie 1019** (very much gratified about the a/n part from the cured kshetra), **jean b** (I know old wine in a new bottle, just hope you like the new bottle), **flame dancer 077** ( I am a funny silly goose, am I ? don't know why but I am actually pleased with that.), **NeLLy 22** ( I like that Lucius too the one you talked about and maybe I'll do that some other time. And I have never been told, "you rock" so many times in my whole life. Come to think of it. I don't think anyone's told me that other than you.), **Lucathia Rykatu **(I hope you will continue to enjoy the wonderful opportunity of waiting), **Riles** (the secret is there is no secret! You don't know the amount of stuff I forget. I am quite sure when I am done with the whole thing I'll have to put up plot lines that I forget to add in the chapters, but seriously truth is I usually have the first and the last chapter well planed in my head, the middle part is pretty vague and I have to work on that. Lucky you, your holidays are just starting. Mine are over (shudder at the agony) 50,000 projects? I hope you had a lot of fun,) **jenbeauty67 **(you're right. I am actually getting close to the finish), **Burgandyred **(I have so terribly missed you. Hope you did well in that paper and I hope you review.) **Chillout** (when I saw the first two words I swear I had a heart attack. I've never been told I am bad and when I saw your review at first…anyway apart from the shock I am just glad you liked it.), **T'Lorie **(your wish Is my command.)

And last of all would you guys please read my new story "black hearts" and give it a chance. Chapter 2 is up.


	13. Fins & Scales, Dublin 8

                                                              CHAPTER14:

                                                   FINS AND SCALES, DUBLIN 8

'_Muggles,'_ that was the first and also the most lasting impression that Heuston Railway Station left on Draco's mind. Though he had known that there would be muggles here and quite a lot of them but the image of the solitary dumb muggle who could easily be turned into a frog by muttering a few words was too firmly fixed in his mind and so he was ill prepared to deal with so many of them.

"Where do we go from here?" shouted Hermione, to make herself heard over the din. Though she knew she had nothing to fear among muggles but the countless unknown faces were making her sense of homesickness acute.

Unknowingly even to herself she moved closer to Draco, he being the only one she knew in that crowd. Two days ago, his presence would have been a matter to wail about but now she …trusted him…sort of, even though he had threatened moments ago, to turn her into "armpit fungus" if she didn't stop laughing.

"I'll have to apparate to "L.F.F" branch here to get their address, considering you are too mentally deficit to even master something as simple as apparating."  He answered not bothering to lower his voice. He took a step back just in time as a woman with a cartload of luggage and children veered dangerously into his path.

"Draco, stop being so loud. They'll hear you." Hermione whispered, casting doubtful looks around them to see if anyone had heard.

He smirked at her comment and he was just about to make a smart arse observation but Hermione impatient to get to Diagon Alley continued "I thought you came here with your mother, surely you know the address."

"We never got down at the station. Portkeyed home from the train itself."

 '_Now I see why,' _he added to himself, looking at the vast crowd of muggles.

 He tried to calculate the number of people who he could stun at once, but finding the number too small he instead thought of the number of people who would rush at him the moment he took out his wand. This, he found was an alarmingly large number.

"Like I said. I'll go. Stay here." And then before Hermione could protest Draco disappeared with a small crack.

Hermione stood shock still waiting for the commotion that was to follow. '_Surely someone would have noticed.' _Logic told her. But it appeared as if no one had noticed the sudden vanishing act of a sixteen year old.

Often she had heard comments of how easy it was to fool muggles, that they wouldn't notice magic in their mundane world. Hermione had always hated these comments believing instead that it was the whole secrecy surrounding wizards that kept them inconspicuous. Draco had of course just proved her wrong.  It wasn't that they couldn't see magic but that they wouldn't; they'd always believe it to be a trick or a technique.

She soon felt anxious when he didn't come back and she kept casting half glances at her side to see if he would suddenly reappear. This of course earned her the curious looks of the passer-by's who though wouldn't notice anything extraordinary, were always prompt at finding something abnormal in their fellow human beings.

"Granger, over here." The voice came from far off and she turned, scanning the crowd around her but she couldn't spot him.

"HEY SIGHTLESS, LOOK AT THE ENTRANCE, WOULD YOU? BRAIN OF ENGLAND, WHAT'S THE USE? MUGGLES WOULD BE BETTER THAN YOU AT USING YOUR EYES." His distinct drawl carried over the racket and she finally spotted him standing behind a small barrier, which separated the platform from the rest of the station. A uniformed guard stood there casting a disproving look at her, as if the insolent brat standing next to him was all her fault.

Many people had heard his comment and some shot her a sympathetic look. One old lady going as far as to remark quietly as she passed her that "surely her boyfriend hadn't meant to compare her with a maggot"

She cast him a deathly glare when she reached his side but it was totally lost on him as he was in the process of casting a similar look at the guard, who hadn't let him on to the platform due to the absence of a platform ticket.

"I kept telling that muggle that I had been on the platform and that I had just stepped out but the bloody idiot wouldn't believe me. Kept asking me for a ticket. Can you believe that? Me …for a ticket.  I wish my father was here; he would have given that muggle the ticket he deserved, a ticket straight to hell." He ranted as they walked towards the double door entrance.

Hermione, sensing the beginning of one of Malfoy's "my father" speeches quickly spoke up. A guilt of sorts had been for a while brewing in her mind. She had not told him of the conversation she had overheard between Lucius and Duncan and every time she heard him talk of his father in that tone of his, she felt an instant regret that all his admiration was wasted on that vile man.

"Why did you apparate there anyway? It would have been easier if you had turned up on the platform." She said.

His angry expression gave way to embarrassment and he seemed put off by her question.

 "Er… I sort of…Granger, I really can't explain to someone who has never apparated as to how hard it is to apparate to the exact spot that you want to end up at.  Really, to have each and every atom of your body transported over vast distances is not easy, especially since you have to at the same time think of where you want to go. Suffice to say I ended up in the parking lot and if you laugh I swear I'll carry out my previous threat."  He said, all the words tumbling out at once.

She smiled from the combined effect of his words and the view of the said parking lot.

 "I am glad." She said simply.

"What?" he asked dumbfounded.

"That we both know mentally deficit people who can't even master something as simple as apparating" she said solemnly.

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Dublin, like any other growing metropolis was jam-packed with three things. Traffic, skyscrapers and people. To Hermione who had lived in the muggle world this aspect of Dublin was not at all revelatory and she only felt that this was a much quieter place when compared to London.

Draco, was on the other hand dead sure that he was going to have nightmares of this place for the rest of his life. He was not completely devoid of knowledge of the muggle world having taken a liking to The Mad Muggle Comics as a kid. (The Mad Muggle Comics had in fact provided the inspiration for the tales of his death defying encounters with machine gun wielding, helicopter riding muggles. The tales had been instant success back in first year, in the Slytherin comman room anyway.)    

No magical world that he had ever visited however looked like this and no amount of eyewitness accounts had ever convinced him that the "very, very tall buildings that muggles live in" actually existed.

Draco Malfoy was therefore very much taken aback. 'Experiencing the muggle world' had never been on his priority list and what little he had been forced to see was enough. They were out on the sidewalk just next to the station and Draco had no intention of proceeding further into the muggle world.

"Here's the address." He said, putting a small laminated parchment in Hermione's hand.

 She almost balked when she read the name. "' **Fins & Scales**'?" That's L.F.F?" she asked, flipping the card over.

"**Where Every Fish Out Of Water Is Found A Home**."  She read out loud, letting out a snort at the apparent attempt at linkage between wizards and fishes.

"Use you're head, Granger. The place is in a muggle area, it has to be inconspicuous," he said.

"Oh and "Fins And Scales" is very unnoticeable, isn't it?" she teased.

 He ignored her comment and instead chose to go on with what he had been planning to say for a while.

"You'll have to ask around for the directions and if you get lost, I am sure you will, do keep in mind the painful memory of me distinctly telling you that I am not going to come looking for you. I won't even tell anyone that I saw you. Knowing your friends I know they'll…"

  "Wait did you just say that I had to ask for directions?"  She said, cutting of his rant mid sentence.

  "Well unless you've by hearted the whole geography of Dublin, you really will have to ask for directions."  He said, bluntly.

"Where will you be?" she screeched. '_He can't be thinking of leaving me alone in Dublin and going away. Can he?'_

"Er, at Fins And Scales. Waiting for that dreaded moment when that oh so nagging voice of yours will again grate my eardrums."  He said, seemingly surprised at her question.

"We never discussed this." She said angrily, drawing herself up to her full height in a useless effort to stare his towering frame down. She was however inwardly relieved that he had not been talking about going into hiding again.

He seemed genuinely surprised and said impatiently "what's there to discuss. I apparate. You walk. We both reach our destination."

"Yes but you can't apparate." She wailed.

"Why not?"

"Because…because… remember last time? You'll end up in Antarctica next," she said.

"EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES, OKAY?" he bellowed at her angrily. He regretted it almost at once as some muggles attracted by his loud voice cast him a disapproving look.

 Gulping down an almost inane fear, he pulled Hermione roughly a few steps back, so that they stood a little away from the sidewalk.

"Draco…LET GO." Hermione shouted. She had unlike Draco seen nothing fearful about the muggles and had been surprised when he had forcefully taken hold of her shoulder and dragged her away.

" Stop screaming" he said in a hushed tone, casting an almost fearful look as people passed by them.  '_Get a grip, idiot. They're the muggles! They must be scared of you not the other way around.' _Some part of his brain screamed at him. It wasn't that he was scared of them exactly but he felt the same way the intrepid mouse hunter would feel if he was suddenly surrounded by millions of rats.

He had let go of her and she looked up at him sullenly, massaging her shoulder were he had gripped her.

_'She really shouldn't make that face. It spoils the way she…'_

"SHUT UP." He screamed at himself, closing his eyes to stop his mind from noticing unwanted details about her. her eyes, her smile even her damned hair.

He opened them again to see the bloody girl still staring up at him but with an expression of concern.

"Are you all right?" she asked hesitantly.

"No, I am going barking mad." He snapped at her wondering partly how much of it was true.

"Right then, you'd better apparate straight to St Mungo's" Hermione snapped back. She was getting tired of his sudden mood swings.

She regretted getting angry with him the moment he stated to scowl and she said in a desperate voice

"Look Draco, we need to stick together. Your father …he's already found you. He might as well find you again. He…"

But Draco cut in abruptly

 "Ooh I should be scared of him right? Because he's a deatheater and wouldn't even spare his family," he said rolling his eyes at her. He had heard time and again such speeches made about deatheaters and hated such words. 

She didn't meet his eyes; so afraid she was of telling him about what she had overheard her father speak. She had a nasty feeling that he might not believe her and in the typical "Malfoish way" get even more bad tempered.

"Malfoy please, first of all we really need to stay together, second of all…" she hesitated, wondering whether she should tell him.

"Yes?" he asked patronizingly.

"I am horrid at finding my way. I …I am crap at directions." She blurted out.

"Oh I know that. Ever since in the forest went you went the wrong …"

"And third of all, I know the only reason you want to apparate is because you've too scared of the muggle world." She said shrilly. _'Fall for the bait. Please do be stupid.'_

"I AM NOT SCARED OF MUGGLES. I COULD RAZE THIS BLOODY CITY TO THE GROUND, IF I WANTED TO. " He shouted.

"Oh, then you aren't scared of going through the city. Are you?" She asked with a look of well-feigned surprise.

"Of course not" he lied.

She smiled almost at once and then said in a disarmingly sweet voice "well that settles it. Now it says here we need to look first for the Stewart…"

As Hermione continued to prattle out the address Draco glumly made a mental note to read "**How To Keep Your Big Mouth Shut**" the self-help book, that Pansy had always been blabbering about.

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"Draco, could you please move faster?" shouted Hermione from behind him.

"I am trying," said Draco, gritting his teeth in concentration. Try as he might at avoiding physical contact with every muggle in the crowd, he kept walking straight into them. He had however devised a one step technique by which he took just one step at a time and thus avoided muggles. But this was earning him the dark glances of not only Hermione but also the muggles behind him.

Hermione suppressed a smile as she saw him look almost desperately at the crowd. She had hoped the cock sure git would get knocked down a peg or two out of a little muggle contact but she had not dreamed of such success.  She was surprised however that he hadn't taken the easy way out and apparated long ago but then again she knew his pride would never let him do that.

She was half glad that he was so unsure and so rattled by the place but then again this was to be expected.  It was all very new for him and in a way he reminded her of her parents, who were never at ease in wizarding surroundings.

Perhaps it was this thought or perhaps it was the realization that if they kept going at this rate they would never reach their destination that made Hermione cut the lesson short. She bullied her way to the front, and then taking hold of his sleeve she dragged him along.

"Hey, wait Granger, what the hell are you doing." Said Draco. Being pulled along by his sleeve by a girl that too a mudblood was definitely not the right mode of travel for a Malfoy and he was sure that if his father was to see him at the moment, he would unceremoniously fall dead.

"I am making sure that we reach the place before next week." She said grimly.

She had in fact a basic gift of bullying her way out of a crowd, a thing unexpected of her considering her size. Sure enough they soon found themselves at the traffic lights were the crowd thinned and she let go of his sleeve.

She had taken hold of it with ease the way she used to pull Harry or Ron but somehow it was different. Each time her knuckles brushed his skin she was aware of it. It wasn't any sort of romantic electrifying shot that ran through her hand but just that she was uncomfortably conscious of his proximity.

 "I can go faster than you." He hissed behind her, glad she had let go of him. He looked at the light warily, having learnt from the experience of the previous two encounters "that walking on to the street when the lights are red will not only decrease the chances of your survival but also increase your list of interesting swear words which the muggles seemed to have no dearth of.

"Of course you can. Why, if you wanted, you could flatten every muggle in the district and then walk right over them. The only reason I am pulling you along is because I want to hold your pure-blooded sleeve."  She said, walking forward as the lights changed.

"Okay, at this point you are abusing sarcasm." He said sprinting after her.

"So I am. Wonder were I get that from?" she said, flashing a smile in his direction.

"My sarcasm is on a whole exclusively elevated level. It's got class, irony…" but his attention was completely deviated as a gorgeous muggle girl about their age, wearing a little more than negligee walked past them.

The girl, much to Hermione's disgust threw Draco an obvious smile as she walked past him and he turned his head to watch her go past him.

"Hypocrisy?" asked Hermione jeeringly.

"Huh?" asked Draco, still watching the girl melt away in the crowd. Robes, which usually left a lot to be, imagined not being a problem at the moment.

"You are a hypocrite to the first degree you know that."

He seemed to understand what she was getting at and said laughing, "with looks like that she's got be a witch."

"Oh yes, of course she is, just of the muggle variety." She snapped at him.

'The nerve of the girl to smile at him. How could she, without even knowing what sort he is? I mean its not like he is that good looking or something. And what a git he is, to start drooling over any girl that passes by him.' 

She was sure the reason she was angry was because of the hypocrisy that he practised, Besides he should be focussing on getting to Fins and Scales, she told herself.

"Aw Granger, look at you. All talons and claws. You aren't jealous are you?" he asked laughing.

"Don't be stupid." She said testily.

" I wonder whether the fourth reason for wanting me to come along was because you couldn't bare to be separated from me."

"Shut up." She said angrily.

"Admit it. You find me good looking."

"In the league of frogs, yes."

He was about to reply but suddenly stopped short. A familiar feeling washed over him. He scanned the crowd but found nothing.

"What's wrong" Hermione asked. They had a few more streets left and it would be best if they hurried along. The sun was just setting in the far off horizon and the sky was turning a light crimson. 

"Nothing. I just…" but he stopped again and turned completely around looking almost frantic.

"What is it?" Hermione asked her heart beginning to thud faster.

He didn't reply for a while but just stood looking around himself. At last he turned and started walking again.

"Draco what is it?" asked Hermione running after him. He had begun to walk more quickly and Hermione was forced into hurrying along.

"I just felt as if some one was following us. I guess I was being paranoid. I don't think Duncan could have found us so quickly."

"You think its Duncan?" asked Hermione.

"I thought it was. He could not have found us so easily."

 "But …but it can't be him. He is a vampire." She said in a low whisper.

"So?"

"The sun hasn't gone down completely." She pointed out.

"So?" he asked nonplussed.

"He is a vampire." Wailed Hermione

"So?" asked Draco again. His attention was caught up again in a car that had pulled up. It was big and flashy and weirdly reminded him of broomsticks that he had always wanted. Hermione had said it was a pork or was it porche?

"VAMPIRES AND SUNLIGHT DON'T MIX, REMEMBER?"  She screamed at him. She couldn't believe how thick headed he could become at times.

Vampire fanatics weren't that uncommon in Dublin and the passer by's being truly city bred didn't make much of her comment and passed them quickly.

"This is the 21st century Hermione, he just uses a basic sun repellent spell. That's it. Of course he prefers dim lighting but he won't simultaneously combust in light either." Draco replied, not at all perturbed by her screaming. He had come to realize that even if he were to shout loudly that he was a wizard the muggles would just complain that he was being a nuisance.

"So it could have been Duncan?" asked Hermione worriedly.

"Perhaps. We better get quickly to 'L.F.F'."

But Hermione didn't start walking at once. She stood looking at the street for a second and then said

"Draco, how much money is left from what Eoin gave us"?

"Granger did you not understand what I said. We need to move quickly and WHY ARE YOU WAVING YOUR HAND AT THAT CAR."  He shouted as Hermione hailed a taxi.

She opened the door and turned smiling at him.

"One its only a little far now, two I think we have just enough money for the fare, three we'll get there faster using a taxi. Now the only question remaining is whether you're ready for your very first ride." She said smiling.

Draco could have sworn that a hundred generation of Malfoy's turned over in their graves as he got in.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can open your eyes now, Draco." Said Hermione in mockingly soothing voice.

"Shut up, Granger."   He said. His eyes were in fact open but he sat clutching the upholstery of the seat as if he was afraid of falling off. The streets whizzed past him and he felt it was weird to think that there was no magic involved in their movement.

He slowly relaxed as time went on and he sat back trying to sort out all that he had seen.

He didn't like it, he was sure of that. He didn't like the crowd and neither did he like the many cars (except perhaps the pork) or the traffic. But there was something, which he grudgingly wondered about, how in the world did muggles get along in their lives without the slightest trace of magic involved.

Not that he cared mind you, but still it was …amazing.

"We're here." Said Hermione, putting a halt to his thoughts as the taxi pulled up before a side street.

Once the taxi had gone Hermione continued "well it's supposed to be in there according to the address. So is this the place?"

"Dunno, I apparated inside." Said Draco walking forward. It was a dingy street, pretty much deserted.

"By mistake I presume?" Asked Hermione following.

He ignored her jibe as he answered, " Like I said it's easy to apparate to 'L.F.F'. Its easy to visualize."

"Why?"  Asked Hermione but she needn't have bothered asking as it came into view. She realized almost the moment she saw it, the reason for its easy visualization and its weird name.

"Fins & Scales in Dublin 8" was an aquarium shop.

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 Am actually way too sad. Way, way, way too sad.  

 Read and review. Haven't the heart to say anything more.


	14. Temple Bar

Chapter Fifteen

Temple Bar

Old magic had always been very simple. No intricately weaved in words, motions, or chants. This was the exact reason why it was so hard to break. "New age magic," Seldonian the great magic analytic had explained was like a jumble of knots. Eventually you could get hold of the right string and pull the whole thing apart.

Old magic of course, consisted only of one string and you could pull it this way and that and scratch your head (the apparent usefulness of the action still remaining a mystery to mankind.) but it remained the same way.

Old age magic was what had protected Hogwarts and it was the very same thing, which kept the thirty strong auror groups out of Malfoy Estates. For almost two days now the elite of the aurors had been, waiting crammed up in the moat around the estates (rumoured to have once been home to the loch ness monster) waiting for Malfoy to show up.

They had been the newest bunch to join the aurors and so they had tried to whine about the improbability of Lucius Malfoy, an escaped convict, walking down the road, whistling loudly, waving a hello and opening the huge ivy twisted gates using a key. The old rag-eye-stick (another popular name for Moody) had however told them to shut up and be ready to nab Malfoy if he suddenly turned up.

The elite of course were of the opinion that Malfoy was already inside and it was only a matter of time before they caught their death sloshing around in the muck.

'_Poor devils_' thought Duncan as he caught sight of them huddled up together in the rain. He had apparated in without setting off a single alarm on the auror's side, as the thick blanket of protective magic didn't prevent any of the Malfoys or their friends from getting in and out.

Draco Malfoy had not been wrong in thinking Duncan had been in Dublin. He had been there just a little away from Draco and that girl.

That girl…Granger. He had heard about her before both from Lucius and Draco and never had it been flattering. Not surprisingly Lucius blamed her for Draco's actions Lucius was certain that it was teenage hormones that were to blame for Draco's erratic behaviour and that he had suddenly found himself in "love" with that bushy haired mudblood do gooder.

To say Lucius Malfoy had been spluttering shaking with rage would have seriously been the mother of all understatements

Duncan however thought otherwise. He had observed them, seen them together, all the way from Heuston into the heart of Dublin. Sure they fought with almost an ardour and there were one to many times when one of them seemed uncomfortable of the others proximity, but he didn't see any of the paperback doe eyed romance that was supposed to make saints out of sinners.

There was something else at play here, he felt. Something that Lucius had overlooked.

"Lucius they are in…" said Duncan to an apparently empty study. A small fire was cackling in the fireplace and it was obvious the occupant had left in a hurry. There was none of Lucius' preciseness and parchments lay scattered all over the table.

He should have sensed that Lucius was not there, but he had been too caught up in his thoughts, to put his heightened senses to any use. Besides, Lucius had said he would stay at the manor until Duncan could track Draco down.

Unless…

_'Let us go back. I'll track him down…. and stop him.' _Words, words of not so long ago.

Duncan made his way quickly to the table. On the top lay a map of Dublin, a highly detailed one, showing not only wizarding areas but also the muggle.

There, quite distinctly moving towards the wizarding area was a red pulsating dot with a name scrawled at the top…Draco Malfoy.

His mind worked feverishly as he looked at the map. It was obvious enough. Lucius had a tracker on Draco. But why make him go all the way in search for Draco when he could have just used the tracker to spot him in the first place.

"_I will not tolerate my son," and here his voice shook "from standing up against me. I'll do whatever I have to…. to change his mind."_

'H_e hadn't wanted me with him when he met Draco, but why? He was planning to do something that I might…' _but he did not want to follow that line of thought. He traced the path Draco was following trying to fix where it would end.

'_He wont do anything, he couldn't, Lucius wasn't the sort to make empty threats but this was his son for Merlin's sake._ '

Yet, the way he had said…

'I will not let him destroy all that I have worked for on a whim Duncan; I have made sacrifices for our cause before. I will do it again if necessary.'

The memory seemed to resolve whatever doubts Duncan had had and he disapparated out of the study.

The thirty elite aurors continued to play exploding snap in peaceful discontent.

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Diagon Alley

"It's obvious. They must have found her, Harry" Said Ron, almost skipping in his excitement.

Harry didn't reply. He felt that he had to see her before he could let himself feel happy.

Tonks had come barging into their rooms and had told them to go to Dumbledore at once.

She had of course rushed out without giving a reason.

Harry's heart thumped loudly as he knocked on the door.

"Come in," it was Dumbledore's voice.

He pushed the door open and stepped inside, followed by Ron.

Only Dumbledore was there and he had his cloak on, as if he was preparing to go out.

"Good, you are both here." Dumbledore said. There was a forced cheerfulness in his voice.

"Where's Hermione?" asked Ron, looking all around him, even at the ceiling as if he expected her to jump down from there.

"She…I don't know." Dumbledore said wearily.

Dumbledore didn't need Occumelcy to know what was going on in Harry's head. He remained quiet as if he had expected it. Disdain radiated from him, as if he had known that Dumbledore would fail him again.

"You…what do you mean by you don't know? You said you could find her," said Ron desperately.

Dumbledore didn't know what was worse. The fact that Harry might never trust him again or the fact that Ron believed in him completely.

" I know what I said," Answered Dumbledore, with another sigh. He knew he owed them all that he knew but were…how was he supposed to begin.

His hands rounded on Hermione's broken wand, deep in one of the pockets of his cloak.

"Lets go outside. I'll…I'll tell you everything I know."

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Fins & Scales

" What d'ya want?" the man behind the counter did not even look up as he asked. He was sitting propped up on his chair with his legs on the counter, scribbling on a paper.

"What would you recommend, the goldfishes or the piranhas?" that was Draco of course.

The man looked up with a scowl, which seemed to deepen as he looked at the two of them.

"I've seen you before." He said finally, looking at Draco.

"Yes, I was here yesterday buying one of those." He said pointing at the newspaper stand.

On the very top were a few muggle papers, which seemed a few years old but below it, Hermione could make out flashing moving pictures of the Irish Express.

"What d'ya want now? Another newspaper?" asked the man sneering. He seemed bent at being unpleasant and Hermione found herself moving closer behind Draco to avoid his leering glance.

"No, a portkey to the nearest wizarding centre." Draco said. He did not in the least like the way the man had been looking at Hermione and yet he knew that he shouldn't carry out his impulse to turn the man into a toadfish.

"Oh really? Well you'll just have to come back tomorrow. Its already six o' clock. Time to close the shop." The man said, suddenly getting up.

" You're lying. You're just…" began Hermione indignantly but Draco stopped her.

"Perhaps this would make you keep the shop open for a while more?" He said coldly flinging a galleon on to the counter.

The man's eyes gleamed as he saw it but he made no motion to touch it. Still looking at the coin, he said, "perhaps it would, but you know how much it cost these days to make a perfect portkey. Why it's tremendous strain…" he stopped as Draco put a handful of coins on to the counter.

The temptation seemed too great and he gathered them up quickly. He tested one of them scraping it as if to see if it would wear off.

"Before you dissolve them by drooling all over them perhaps you could get us our portkey." Said Hermione disgusted.

"Oh, right away madam," He said. His voice now sickly sweet. He got up and went into an inner room, closing the door behind him.

They could hear him humming now and it was obvious from the clinking sound that he was counting the money.

"Horrible offensive rude rat." Said Hermione. She was standing close behind Draco and it was as if she was whispering in his ear. Indeed, she spoke softly, not wanting to see that man changing colours again.

"Glad you noticed." Said Draco quietly, not bothering to turn around. He was too interested in looking at the newspaper, which the man had left behind.

"Yes, who would have thought that I would find anything much more offensive than you." She snapped.

" Merlin's beard, is that compliment that I hear from Hermione Granger." Asked Draco, as if in astonishment.

She was angry with the man and she was even more angry with Draco. Harry or even Ron for that matter would have noticed the man's leering glance and would have flown into rage but Draco had just remained quiet, as if he didn't notice or care. It wasn't that she needed some chivalrous knight to speak for her but the fact that he had stopped her from speaking her mind to that scumbag made something in her grate.

'_Then again why do you expect him to act in a certain way?_' a nasty voice within her gleefully asked.

She chose to ignore what he had said and asked instead, "you shouldn't have given that spiteful man so much money, especially since this service is supposed to be free."

"How naïve can you be? Nothing in this world comes without a price and no one helps you without a reason." He rattled out. This was common knowledge after all.

"That's not true. Take Eoin for an example. He didn't get anything out of helping us." She insisted.

"Yeah well, he's muggle." He said, trying to ignore the jarring contrast between the two men.

"So is that a bad thing or a good thing?" asked Hermione innocently.

"He is muggle. He acts foolishly. End of story." Snapped Draco.

" Oh really?" she asked smiling, knowing that Draco was keen on avoiding that topic.

When he didn't respond she continued,

"By the way I never knew you could stand being snubbed by a counter man. I mean not to show respect to a Malfoy, how shocking?"

"One, he didn't know I was a Malfoy, second of all, he didn't know that I had money." He said diplomatically.

"So basically what you are saying, is that people respect a person only when that person is rich and has a high family name?"

"Obviously." He said shrugging.

"Draco?"

"What?"

"Do you know how warped your sense of morals is?"

He turned around and grinned as he saw her expression of disbelief. He was about to say something when the man came bustling into the room, a box in his hand and the greasy smile still in place.

"Here you go. I hope I haven't kept you waiting for long. It will take you to the nearest wizarding centre just as you wished. Its one of the most posh places in Ireland actually. Rather costly but that shouldn't be a problem for you." He said still staring at the counter as if in memory of the money.

Draco took the box without a word and flipped it open. Inside was a cricket ball with Fins & Scales engraved on it.

"Let's go," Said Hermione.

He nodded and balancing the box in one hand put the other over the portkey even as Hermione did the same.

Hermione counted and at three, they disappeared.

The man went back to his crossword puzzle, never realizing that in less than five minutes his hands would turn into chicken wings and that he would have to spend ten times more than what Draco had given him because of a carefully concealed curse that Draco had left behind on the paper.

Also unaware to this, a second later when the reeling feeling was gone, Hermione opened her eyes to see a huge banner that splashed in large glossy letters

"WELCOME TO TEMPLE BAR"

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Temple bar put simply was a magical marvel. Unlike Diagon alley and other magical spaces, which were usually cramped and closed up, so as to keep them free from muggle eyes, 'temple bar' existed side by side with the muggle center of the same name. Chris O' Donald had hit upon the idea after he had stumbled upon a muggle science fiction about ulterior planes.

The grandness of the place was however totally lost on Draco Malfoy, as he eyed the festive crowd on the street, and muttered finally, "bloody Irish,"

Hermione Granger couldn't help but smile at Draco's impatience. Normally, it was her nature to be irritated at delays but perhaps it was the celebratory air that hung around the place that made her feel, for the time being at least, contented.

Unfortunately they had landed in Temple Bar on a local holiday and the place was thick with artists and tourists, who had come for the annual parade. The parade had been in the morning but there were still a few hundred stragglers left behind, and it was impossible, at least for a few hours, to get anywhere near the Floo hub.

They were on one of the relatively quieter streets of Temple Bar and Hermione was seated on the steps that led to a closed bakery. Draco, however, was pacing around cursing everything in sight.

"Really Draco, you are over reacting. It is just a delay of an hour or so, until the Floo Hub can sort out the crowd. It's not all that bad. We will be in Diagon alley, soon enough." She said, tired of his impatience.

_'You Granger not we,"_ but he didn't point it out at the moment.

"Is that a 'cheer up' speech, Granger? Anything more about 'look for the silver lining' or 'remember that even when the blast ended skrewt is stinging you, its end is exploding on someone else's face.' He asked sullenly.

"Blast ended…is that really…" started Hermione flabbergasted, but Draco clarified,

"Slytherin quote,"

"Ah, now I understand. Disgustingly appropriate philosophy by the way,"

He couldn't help but smile at her words and he finally settled down next to her, his sullenness for the moment at least forgotten.

"Draco?" She said a few minutes later, hoping his good mood was here to last.

"Yes?" it was a patronizing voice; he was resigned to the fact that the only two things he would ever hear out of Hermione's mouth was either a lecture or a question.

"I wanted to ask you a question," she said softly.

"Really, how surprising, and there I was thinking you would give me an exact explanation as to why, you were passionately calling out my name last night.

He had expected her to screw up her face in disgust and was therefore shell shocked when she paled and blurted out in a panicky shout, " I didn't call your name out passionately,"

"Wait, does that mean you actually had a dream with me in It." he crowed.

She couldn't believe that she had been stupid enough as to fall for Draco's constant jabbering. He'd been joking but now …

"I can't believe it, saint Hermione is dreaming about me," he said exaggeratedly, putting his hand to his heart.

"Oh, shut up Malfoy, you know very well that I care less than two Knuts for you, let alone dream about you."

His egotistical nature made him taken an offence all most at once. It was petty of course to hold a grudge against her but then he was after all a Malfoy.

"Draco, I was just…" started Hermione hesitantly. Sniping at each other had always been part and parcel of their conversation, but the expression of resentment that had crossed his face for a moment made her feel uncomfortable. The impossible thought that one of her jabs could have actually, finally managed to permeate through his thick skin and find its mark gave her no delight what so ever. '_Since when does he care as to what I say?'_

"Joking," prompted Draco cheerfully. "Oh I know that. This face has stumped a dozen veelas, then what are you, but a mere gargoyle,"

If she had felt slightly bad at having made a harsh statement before, she felt ten times worse at having not made it harsher. He was back to his teasing.

"Now look here, Malfoy…"

Draco interrupted, " but if you would rather stick to carrot top and four eyes, it really doesn't bother me."

"Fine," said Hermione.

"Fine," repeated Draco.

A moment of peace prevailed until Draco continued, "So who is it?"

'Argh,' "Why do you care?" she snapped, glowering with indignation.

The question filled his head with devilish intent.

_'Why do you care?' _He didn't want the answer.

But he had to give some answer; she was waiting for it with extreme distrust and it was in a slightly less cocky voice that he answered, "I …I don't care. It is just…the bet. The bet remember? I was thinking of investing. You wouldn't be sure as to who you were snogging for the past five years, now would you?"

'_Typical Malfoy,' she_ had of course been aware of rumours but she had never given it much of a thought. But now listening to him, she wanted to yank his hair off.

"I am not Harry's or Ron's or Victor's girlfriend and the next time you mention any of their names in this context, Draco, I swear on Merlin that I will feed you to a hippogriff." She said zealously.

"Vicktor? Whose Viktor?" asked Draco unperturbed by her warning.

"Stop acting Malfoy, you know who I mean. Viktor, Viktor Krum." She snapped

"The Bulgarian player with the broken nose?" He was genuinely stumped as to why she was mentioning him.

Seeing he was indeed clueless, she prompted, "Fourth year remember? Yule ball? Ever since your soul mate, Rita Skeeter, wrote that article everyone has been asking me…" she trailed off suddenly realizing that she sounded conceited. Truth was, even though, the episode had earned her a number of bad looks Ron's expression on seeing her had been gratifying if not priceless.

"Yeah but you had given him a love potion, right? I mean Padma told Pansy that you had…"

He stopped by the combined effect of Hermione's furious expression and the mortification that he had actually been paying attention to Pansy's endless gossip. At that time it had sounded likely enough. The mudblood was known for her brains and nothing short of a love potion could ever compel anyone to go out with the likes of her.

It was a terse voice that broke his thoughts, "I think the Floo hub must have opened by now, don't you?"

Before he could reply she stomped off clearly furious at him.

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"You sure walk fast walk fast on your dodo legs, Granger," said Draco, the moment he caught up with her. The ground was covered thick with glitter and a host of strangely dressed people filled the streets. Their costumes, being designed by magic, were terribly life-like and not far from them, a whole troop of flamingos, complete with crooked beaks, scarlet and black plumage, were sitting down to tea.

Hermione Granger either did not hear or chose to ignore Draco's comment.

"Look Granger, I did not make this up, alright, about the potion." Draco said, as he sidestepped a golliwog

No reply.

"Oh, c'mon Granger, What with the number of head injuries, he must have got from the bludger collisions, I can believe that Vicktor Krum would ask you out."

It was creepy not to have her shouting at him and he found her endless ranting much more bearable than her put on coldness.

"Frigid cow." He swore, loudly.

"Moron," she shot back, breaking her silence.

He grinned as he heard her.

"See, we are already making progress." He said cheerfully, in spite of being called a moron.

"You are…"

"Charming, wonderful, the best thing that ever happened to you." He continued supplying a string of adjectives.

Hermione, however, did not respond. She had turned pale and was staring behind him and it was as Draco turned to see what it was that she whispered,

"Death eaters,"

Eight of them dressed in their traditional black, with their masks in place had suddenly appeared on the street.

"Draco, lets go," Hermione said urgently, pulling at his sleeve. _'Maybe they have not seen us yet.'_ She thought frantically.

But Draco stood as if rooted to the spot.

He caught her hand, the one that had been pulling at his sleeve, and in an angry whisper hissed, "shut up,"

_'Why isn't he running, why the hell is he waiting for them,'_ she tried to pull away from him, but he held her hand in a vice like grip.

The death eaters advanced on them, their cloaks trailing on the golden glitter that covered the ground.

She stopped struggling, realizing it was useless now to try and run. Besides the stupid sense of heroism that was inherent of any Gryffinder filled her head.

The death eaters stopped a few paces from them and then one of them spoke up,

"I say, you wouldn't know the time, now, would you?"

Draco quipped back, "four-thirty,"

"The Floo Hub must have opened, eh?"

"I reckon so," Draco answered jovially. It was Hermione's expression that was making him so cheerful.

The death eater waved his hand and then went on in a fake put on voice, "let us go faith full death eaters to the Floo Hub and, on the way, raid the nearest pub."

"The proposal was met with all round approval and they left quickly, leaving behind a truly aghast Hermione and Draco Malfoy who was laughing his head off.

" I cant believe how you…you should have seen your expression, Granger…you, you looked like you had swallowed an egg…" he said in between his laughter.

"They were…"

"Dressed up as death eaters, obviously. How can you even think that death eaters could just show up on the street in broad daylight?" he reasoned.

But she didn't look reassured.

"God, Granger, you still look scared, they aren't death eaters, you have surely realized that by now, haven't you?" he tried to sound as if he was teasing her, but concern had crept into his voice. She was pale and was looking at everywhere but him.

But it wasn't the death eaters that had scared her. It had been him; for a second all her doubts about his intentions had resurfaced. For a second she had really thought that Draco was in fact going to betray her to the death eaters.

And she had been scared, downright terrified that she had in the span of just three days trusted him so much, had started counting him as someone… not just Draco Malfoy, the ferret who had annoyed her for five years but as …

'_Stop it,_' she told herself angrily. '_This after all is but a temporary truce until we get back to Diagon Alley based on mutual disagreement and dislike. That and nothing more."_

"I am alright," she snapped quickly, pulling away from him. He let go of her hand perplexed at her sudden anger.

"I do think it's wrong to dress up like death eaters. I mean, couldn't the real death eaters sneak in under the pretence of this stupid fancy dress?" she was blabbering but this was the best way to cover up her source of embarrassment.

"The Irish aren't all that stupid Granger, the place is rigged with spells: death eaters can't get into Ireland." He said dryly.

"Really, I guess someone forgot to tell your father that."

"I was thinking about that."

"What? Sending your father, a 'you aren't allowed here' placard,"

"When I said death eaters couldn't get into Ireland, I meant a group of them; one of them can slip in unnoticed. What I was thinking about was how exactly he found me."

" You ran away from one of your homes to just another one. It doesn't take a genius to find you, Draco."

"But how did he find me so quickly. Why didn't he look somewhere else first? France, Rome, Paraguay, we've got estates all over the globe. Why did he come specifically to Ireland?"

"Maybe he is got you bugged," it was impossible of course but it was well worth saying it if only to see Draco's expression,

"Bugs, where?" he said frantically.

"Never mind," she said smiling.

"What I still don't understand is how he found us," he said finally once he had made sure there was nothing on him.

"Maybe he is not as stupid as his progeny," she said lightly. She didn't want to talk about his father; it brought back memories of unpleasant things she had heard.

It was obvious that Draco had not been paying attention to Hermione when he said dismissively, "yeah, maybe,"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author notes

'Lo people,

Seldonian is just the slightly altered name derived from "Hari Seldon" from the Foundation Books (though my personnel favorite happens to be Salvor Hardin, for anyone who has read the books)

I know, no need to tell me, I know what you are thinking. When is something going to happen in this story? Well in the next chapter of course (that is if I could stop unwanted things from cropping up.)

As to why it took such a long time to update. Put it down to sheer laziness, school work and uncalled for depressions. (Yes, I am one of those people who go around some days raging about the utter pointlessness of our lives.)

In other news, there are only a few more chapters to go and I'll try and finish them as soon as I can.

Thank you, so much, all of you who read and reviewed. it was so nice to keep getting reviews telling me to update, update, update. I hope you do it again.

Kshetra

Ps: Merry Christmas.


	15. Heartfelt Goodbyes

Chapter Sixteen

Heartfelt Goodbyes Part One

"Are you sure this is the waiting room?" asked Hermione wonderingly, as she stared wide-eyed at the endlessly pillared hall. It was a gloomy place, badly lit and cold.

"That's what the scary lady said." answered Draco. The scary lady had been, in fact, one of the Floo Hub's employees who had shown them into the waiting room.

"I've read about this. The place is built on shifting planes, right?" asked Hermione.

"Suppose so," answered Draco, languidly.

"Well, that explains it. This place is where the Floo Hub usually stands. Except now, to deal with the crowd, it has moved to another dimension, leaving this place bare. Marvellous, don't you think?" asked Hermione, excited.

"If you say so," said Draco, yawning.

"But don't you see?" She pressed on. "This is an advanced application of magic. Imagine, tons and tons of concrete get shifted from one dimension to another; atom-by-atom and then it resets in the new dimension. It's brilliant. Don't you see that?"

She asked eagerly.

"Not really," said Draco.

She rolled her eyes at his lack of interest but didn't try to argue further.

_'A very good thing,' Draco_ felt. He didn't want her to keep chattering.

He wanted her to keep quiet, so that he could think…really think as to what he was going to do.

His plan had been uncomplicated before he met Hermione.

Run away to a safe place. That had been the extent of his plan. But he had worked out this simple notion to the finest details.

Hermione's arrival had been a bolt from the blue, but his plan had still survived.

Throw mudblood between her dotting friends, earn a good name in the process, and then run away to somewhere safe.

He knew what had gone wrong in this plan, the finer details. There was a slight flaw in this plan…Hermione and the fact that she still assumed that he was going with her to Diagon Alley.

She was pacing around now in circles, almost skipping in excitement.

The reason for it became clear as she exclaimed happily, "I can't wait to get to Diagon Alley,"

"I noticed," said Draco dryly.

"I mean, it's just been three days but I feel like I have been away for so long. I wonder how the boys are; they must have been worried sick when they found me missing."

Now, he felt, was the best time, to get it across to her that he wasn't going to Diagon Alley. What with her volatile temper, the last thing he wanted was to have her screaming at him in a crowded Floo Hub.

"It's too bad," he said, accordingly

"What?"

"That I won't get to see weasel's expression when you tell him that I, Draco Malfoy, saved your life." He said.

"Ron is going to be stumped. He'll probably think I have gone mad; he is sure to say that it's all the…wait, why did you say you wouldn't be there?"

"Obviously, Hermione, I won't be there. By the time you tell them the whole story, I'll probably be in some tropical paradise, working my way through my complementary martini." It was a wonderful thought. '_Wonderful' _he convinced himself angrily as at the moment it didn't sound that appealing.

"I don't…you are coming to Diagon Alley, right?" she asked.

"Of course not, why would I?" he asked as if puzzled." I mean that is the deal right. I leave you somewhere safe and vanish…the very image of sickly sweet heroism." He added.

"But you…that was before…when we just…you can't still be planning to go away. I assumed…"

Her broken explanation was cut short as Draco snapped, "well you assumed wrong. Why in the world would I change my plans?"

She looked wretched trying to find a conclusive argument and it was after some time that she spoke again, "I mean, where will you go? The war is coming and there is no place, where you can be safe. Plus, you are just sixteen; you can't actually manage alone. Most importantly, you're undisputedly a snobby git; you really aren't the type who can survive on the run." She had made up her mind; she was going to argue until he saw that she was right.

"First of all, news flash, the whole world is never affected by war. There always places that see almost no trouble. You must have read about the non-aligned territories, Atlantis for example. Pretty hard to get admitted to the place but no war ever goes there."

"Voldemort can attack those places,"

"No, he won't; there aren't any muggles there, Granger. No muggles, no war."

That was a stab and Hermione didn't take it lightly. But Draco was already answering her next argument.

"As for me being sixteen, I hate to break this to you, but we get older every year, and surprise in a few months I'll be seventeen. Get drunk, apparate, do magic anywhere; have your pick. I can do anything.

"As if you haven't been already doing it," she muttered angrily

He smiled as he heard her and added, "legally,"

"And as for being a snobby git…" but Hermione didn't let him continue. She didn't want to hear any of his counter arguments anymore.

"Look you can't go, alright. You can't just leave."

"Why not?"

"Because I say so," it was a defensive stand, which sometimes worked with Ron or Harry; here, of course, there was little chance of success.

"Because I say so? What sort of a reason is that? Look, we had a deal. You go to Diagon alley; I go on my way; End of story."

"What about your father, Draco?" she asked. She had not wanted to bring this up, but there was no other go.

"What about him?" Draco asked.

"He tracked you down to Shawcross Hall. You thought you saw…sensed Duncan in Dublin. He is not going to let you go, just like that." It was a rational argument if only he would listen.

"Look, he got lucky at Shawcross hall. Plus, you slow me down. I would have apparated millions of miles away, if you hadn't been with me."

_'Why the hell was she trying to make this more difficult." _"Besides, I was going to send him a note. I was going to explain it to him. Sure he'll kick up a big fuss about tradition, but…"

He wasn't allowed, however, to finish as Hermione cut in quietly,

"He won't give up that easily, Draco."

"And you know my father better than me, because?" he asked her patronizingly.

"I heard him talk to Duncan after you left." She said deadpan.

She told him what she had heard. She could not however convey his father's expression or his tone when he had said the words and without them, she had to admit they sounded like empty threats.

"Are you done?" asked Draco laughing. "You really are daft, Granger. You really think that he would ever hurt me. Of course he would say all grand stuff, 'the dark lord is the greatest and I would sacrifice everything gibberish' but you can't take all that seriously Granger."

"But…"

"Forget it alright. Look, you are really wasting your time. No more of your high-strung theatrics. I think I'll wait outside."

"Draco, stop." Said Hermione, practically pulling at his sleeve to prevent him from going.

"Granger, would you stop, you are acting like a…"

She let go of his arm and blocked his path as she asked him stubbornly,

"Why are you running away, Draco?"

"None of your business," he said testily, trying to get past her.

"It has something to do with your mother's death, right?" she asked. She was ranting of on assumptions and she knew it wasn't the smartest way.

"Granger, you don't know a…"

"How did she die, Draco? Your dad was involved in it, someway, wasn't he?" She asked finally. The thought had been in the back of her mind for a while now and now it was out in the open…

His face convulsed and when he advanced at her, she thought, without doubt, that he was going to hit her. She moved back, but she couldn't go any further; behind her was a cold and smooth pillar.

Her mind, as always, reminded her that she could run but she stood there, paralysed, both waiting for and also dreading the impending blow.

Though he was now standing very close to her and despite the fact that he looked ready to tear her apart, the blow never came.

"You want to know how my mother died, Granger." He asked his voice bitter. "You know you are right; she did die because of my father. She died worried sick that my father would never be able to get out of Azkaban. She knew how her sister came out of there…insane completely insane and she was worried about him. She worked herself out, trying to get him released. She wouldn't eat; she wouldn't sleep; she wanted to get sick so that he would be let out to see her. That's how she died. Pretty stupid way to die, don't you think?" He asked his voice barely in restraint.

She had never thought…

He continued, "come to think of it. You know, you can't really blame my father for her death. Because the people who were responsible for his arrest were YOUYOU'RE YOUR BLASTED FRIENDS." He spat out angrily.

He moved away from her and started towards the door.

"Draco, pleas, I…" she said catching hold of his sleeve.

"GO AWAY, Granger," he shouted, pushing her roughly away.

She stumbled as she fell back. Fully expecting to fall flat on the ground, she put out her hands to break the fall.

But the ground never came. She instead landed on something soft and plush.

She blinked as she looked around herself. The gloomy empty pillared hall had disappeared.

There were stalls set up near the ends of the room with placards of locations flashing across them; the place was thick with the bustle and activity of travelling wizards.

It looked in every respect like the interiors of a muggle airport.

She looked up at Draco who seemed as surprised as she was.

A voice suddenly filled the room, "thank you for choosing the Temple Bar Floo Hub for all your flooing needs. We are sorry for any inconveniences caused by the delay. Please make use of our services."

"Come on," Draco said abruptly, once the voice had ceased. Without giving her second look, he walked off to the stall with the 'London' placard.

Author Notes,

As you can see this is part one and part two should hopefully surface in a few days time. Draco's going to get nastier in the next chapter (ooh what fun) or perhaps I'll make him nicer in the end of the chapter.

Next one will definitely be the hardest chapter to write, and I can't wait to see how you take it. (going out to hire a bronze clad knight for myself as we speak, in case, I have to dodge.)

As always, flattery and criticism are both welcome. Please do review.

A big 'thank you' to all who read and reviewed. Especially irishsodabread, whose quirky review got me started on this one. (if you are really Irish, I expect you are horrified at the lack of my Irish knowledge.)

Kshetra.


	16. Heartfelt Goodbyes Part Two

Chapter Sixteen

Heartfelt Goodbyes Part Two

"And how may I help you?" asked the attendee behind the counter with an endearing smile.

She was around eighteen, new at the job and politeness she hoped would get her through on her first day.

"Private connection for two. Destination Diagon Alley," Snapped Draco. He was still seething with anger and he tried very hard not to notice Hermione, who was standing quietly behind him.

Her smile faltered slightly at his tone, but then she continued with renewed vigour, "er, of course but first I have to take down some of your details. You're name, address, purpose of visit, and such like. It won't take more than a minute. I'll just take out the register and we'll get started."

"No, we won't," said Draco flatly.

"But …but sir, the rule book clearly states that I must have your details. I…I am not authorized to give you a Floo connection without that. Please, it won't take more than a minute. They'll fire me, if I don't do things right here," she said earnestly.

"You are a trainee?" asked Draco, suddenly with interest.

"Yes, that's why I am such a mess." She said with a watery smile.

"Indeed? So that means you can easily be fired right? One or two complaints enough?" he asked smiling.

"Yes," she said in a small voice. She did not like where this conversation was heading.

"Well then, I want a private connection, for two, to Diagon Alley. Moreover, I am not going to waste my time filling any useless application forms. And, if I don't get that connection right now, I'll just go and find your floor manger and complain. I will also take the trouble of bringing some of my friends over. So that they too can put a word against you, until you are proved completely incompetent for this stupid job. Now, do I get the connection or not?" he finished with a smile.

He'd learned this very useful technique from his father and the thought further increased his annoyance.

The attendee seemed ready to rip his smiling head off but then she said curtly, " a private Floo connection, for two, to Diagon Alley. Thank you, for choosing the Temple Bar Floo Hub for all your travelling needs."

As he headed towards the door, he heard her mutter under her breath, "Bloody bastards and that too, two in a single day. This just bloody isn't a good start."

"Did you say something?" he asked politely.

"No… I was just …just wishing you a good day."

"Preferably your last," she added when she was sure he was out of earshot.

-

"You didn't have to do that to her," said Hermione, as they made their way through the narrow corridor, searching for the specified room.

"Ah, but I wanted to," he said, with much put on courtesy. He opened the door leading into the luxury class private room.

Considering that the room was meant for spending only a few minutes in, it was excessively furnished. But the place was sound proof, possibly the most vital thing he would need, if Hermione started ranting.

The moment the door closed Hermione spoke up, "It is not over, Draco. I am not going to let you run away. I might have been wrong but I know…"

"You don't know anything, Granger." He said viciously, cutting of her sentence.

He was standing very still. Ready to withstand her large list of arguments. He had to make her leave. Perhaps, he could get her angry enough…

"Draco, I know what I heard. He was dead serious." Said Hermione, earnestly. She had to somehow reason with him. Given his mercurial temper it was not going to be very easy.

"What do you expect him to say? Dance with joy on seeing his only son with a mudblood?"

"You have to come with me, Draco," she said, stubbornly, ignoring his insult.

"And what? Work against my father? Be an auror? Please Granger, if it was but a matter of choice between auror and death eater, I'd chose death eater."

"But what are you going to do?"

"Nothing." He said stoically.

"What?"

"Absolutely nothing. I am not going to do a thing." He said confidently.

"So you are going to waste your life in doing nothing,"

"Yes, I happen to be very good at that."

"This is not funny, Draco," she groaned.

"I know that, Granger. Now would you please leave?" he asked, pointing at the fireplace.

"So you won't come voluntarily?" she asked finally.

"Leave, Granger." He said softly.

"No, I won't. I'll…I'll knock you down and drag you along if I have to." she finished desperately.

It was an empty threat; she couldn't actually do anything to him if he chose not to come and yet…

"Granger?" he asked finally, with a sudden sinister smile, "Why do you care?" she had asked him the same question not long ago.

"What?" that hadn't been the expected question.

"I mean why are you so concerned about my well being." He asked patronizingly.

"I am not concerned," she said laughing as if it was too absurd an idea.

"Then why do you want me to come?" asked Draco, taking a step towards her.

For the first time she actually felt afraid of him. Something in his tone made her feel ill at ease and she moved back slowly.

"I want you to come with me because I don't want you to die." She said flatly. She wished he would stop looking at her like that, as if he was sizing her up for something.

"Why? I mean you want Voldemort dead, don't you? Even my father." He asked, almost grinning as she stumbled away from him. Luckily, for him, she had been standing with her back to the fire, which meant she couldn't move back too much.

"Yes, but that's different. You aren't all that…" she searched frantically for the right word.

"Evil?" asked Draco. He was now level with her and could see her face all in shadow against the fire.

"Or is it," he drawled, "Because nerdy Granger has developed a tiny little crush on me?"

"You are so thick of yourself, you know that."

He'd teased her before and she had always made fun of it but this was getting out of hand.  
She desperately wished that she were at the other side of the room; she could feel the heat of the fire behind her and knew she could not move back another step. The fact that he was standing now so close to her that she couldn't move forward either made her feel terribly trapped. She had to push him away and it was with this resolve she spoke up,

"I don't care a hoot as to what happens to you, all right. It's just that I don't want you to end up dead when I could have stopped it. So it's only for my peace of mind and nothing to do with…"

She was flustered to find that he had caught hold of her hand, which she had put forward to push him away.

Even as she tried to find, frantically, a logical reason as to why he was holding her hand, he pulled her closer to him and then without much ado kissed her.

He pulled back looking at her bewildered flushed face, tracing her jaw line with his fingers, tilting her head up, to kiss her better, even as she stood stoically still filled with confused apathy. It all seemed very surreal to her; a dream from which she would wake up at any second.

But he wasn't so easy to ignore and at some instant, she kissed him back, tentatively at first. But then without reserve so much so that when he broke the kiss abruptly, she was breathless and her hands had snaked up behind his neck guided by some mysterious force. It had nothing to do with her brain, she was sure of that, for it seemed to have shut up and gone off to Timbuktu sometime early during the kiss.

"Nothing eh?" he asked, triumphantly.

She was at last able to discern his face from the great profusion of polka dots that seemed mysteriously to have crowded up her vision until then. He was grinning or was it…

He let his hand move over her neck, lifting her mass of curls, which had come undone. Pushing them back, he drawled mockingly,

"Dream on, mudblood."

There was no doubt now. He was smirking for all he was worth.

He untangled himself from her, pushing her slightly away.

As he opened the door to leave, he looked back at her, standing there, silhouetted against the fire but his mind was made.

"Go back home, mudblood. I am sure Weasel will be glad." He said. Then with a sudden sweeping bow, he left, his laughter reverberating back from the corridor. He was confident that she would go to Diagon Alley now and that he would never be bothered by her again.

It was only after the door slammed shut that Hermione was able to make sense of what he had said.

'_Trick…a stupid mean trick. That was what he had pulled.'_ Her brain, which seemed to have now fully recovered, taunted. Her first impulse was to run down the corridor, claw at him with her bare hands, disfigure his stupid smirking face, which she had kissed.

She hated him and she hated herself worst. She felt truly wretched. Wretched that she had been so stupid, wretched that she hadn't been able to have the last laugh at him, wretched that he had left.

She picked up the pouch of Floo powder that had at sometime fallen to the ground and as she turned to the fireplace, she got the second biggest shock that day.

He was standing close to the fireplace, an invisibility cloak propped carelessly on his arm.

"Well that was a good show." He said smiling. " He has an excellent sense of melodrama, wouldn't you agree?" Lucius Malfoy asked pleasantly.

-

Along with the interior designing, the Temple Floo Hub had also adopted from their muggle counterparts a, rather unnecessary yet exciting, system of security checkouts.

Many had tried to point out, that, if someone wished to bring an unsafe article into Ireland, they would just apparate in or take a portkey but the Irish had stuck stubbornly to their rules. Anyone entering into the country through the Floo Hubs would be subjected to a security check, in which, anything potentially harmful would be confiscated.

People leaving Ireland, however, were exempted from this rule, as they were welcome to take any number of dark objects out of Ireland as they wished.

Surprisingly enough the security check had become quite a tourist attraction, with people bringing odd knick-knacks in, just to give the Irish something to do.

It was in this line up that Draco Malfoy found himself in, minutes after leaving Hermione. _'I am happy, terribly happy…so what if I haven't realized it yet. I'll feel happy…eventually.'_ He told himself resolutely. _'Just a few more minutes and I will forget how she had looked when I went and broke her stupid fantasy and then…then I won't feel so…well I'll feel even more happier than I feel now,' _it was a confusing jumble of thoughts and not the least bit reassuring.

"You didn't go through." It was a security guard with a ridiculous blue and white striped robe.

"What?" asked Draco; he had been too busy trying to find a possibly milder word for explaining the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Your clothes; not a single speck of soot on them. Believe me no one comes out looking like that after they've travelled through Floo," he said in confidential tone.

"Er yes, I mean, no I didn't go. I…er…sort of," rational speech apparently was beyond his capacity at the moment.

"Girlfriend?" asked the guard, sympathetically.

For a second he thought he had been ranting his thoughts out without meaning to. Then he realized that the guard was just making a stupid guess at his reason for not going.

He stood still, waiting for the guard to run his wand over his robes.

The wand usually glowed with a pale blue light. Unfortunately, for Draco, it turned purple.

"Well that's interesting," said the guard loftily.

"What's interesting?" snapped Draco.

"Your girlfriend, she isn't of the jealous type, now is she? " asked the guard with a slimy smile.

"What the hell…"

"There's a tracker spell on you, mate. A rather excellent one, if I may add." Cut in the guard. "That thing you wearing round your neck. Gift from your girlfriend?"

He didn't answer. Gingerly he took the Lyncathe out.

The Lyncathe, it was obvious enough, now that he thought about it.

_"Why didn't he look somewhere else first? France, Rome, Paraguay, we've got estates all over the globe. Why did he come specifically to Ireland?"_

Something else bothered him. Something he had heard not long ago,

_"Bloody bastards and that too, two in a single day. This just bloody isn't a good start." _

At that time, he had assumed she had meant Hermione too but now when he thought about it…

_'He couldn't have been in there…'_

For a second, he stood still, filled with doubts as to what to do. Then he bolted back. Back through the line, earning many a black looks and rude insults. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to do when he got there. But he had to make sure…make sure that she was...

"Scary girlfriend," the guard explained to the baffled crowd before him.

-

"Pushes Bronze painted stainless steel knight with no ears in place."

Right, first of, I am scared. Very scared I've messed up. I have never written anything to do with even remote romance. Anyways how about the twist? Did anyone think that Lucius could have been in the same room and the Lyncathe? I had a frightful feeling that he wouldn't stay still and would instantly whack his son, when he sees him with Hermione. But patience, I do believe, he has got good reasons.

And I just can't think of Draco just kissing her and then both of them looking deep into each other's eyes and vowing eternal love. Perhaps people would disagree but then 'to each his own.' Plus I happen to be very evil and want to torture them a bit more.

Gah, I can't talk. I am too worried. Please do review and tell my darling bronze painted stainless steel knight with no ears what you think. I will decode it from the number of dents on his armour.

Again, please do review. I need to know. (Throws both hands up for heavenly deliverance.)

Kshetra


	17. Father Dearest

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

FATHER DEAREST

He had not the slightest clue as to what he would do, if his hunch proved right. He hoped dearly, that he would be proven wrong, as then there was only the fear of Hermione, who would have now recovered enough to kill him.

It had been a momentary lapse of reason, that's what he had repeated over and over in his head, as he had looked at her, confused and dishevelled. It had been a flash of brilliance what he had done after that.

"Dream on mudblood," beautiful heart breaker; not only did it shatter the impulsive kiss of before but also whatever fragile understanding had interwoven in their banter.

_'Then why the hell, am I running to see if she is okay?'_ By then, however, he had reached the door and there were more pressing things on his mind as he stepped into the room.

His father, for instance.

"Well, isn't the cleverest witch of Hogwarts going to answer the question? Don't you think my son has an excellent sense of melodrama?"

There was some vague thought that somersaulted in her head, that she should run or, at least, shout for help, but she stood still, staring at him blankly.

He moved leisurely away from the fireside and towards the door, barring her only escape from the room.

"It's a pity don't you think, that these private rooms in Floo hubs are sound proof. I mean, what if some terrible accident was to happen here." He continued in a conversational tone.

He had to keep his temper under control and work fast. It was a public place and he was a wanted death eater. The mudblood could, if given a chance, undo all the good work he had put in tracking them down to the Floo Hub.

_'No way out,'_ the thought was flashing fluorescent red in Hermione's head.

"Let me go," for all her fear she sounded surprisingly strong. She was sure of one thing, she wasn't going to let him continue with his "we're just having friendly chat' kind of conversation.

He smiled at her words and pointed at the fireplace,

"By all means, Miss Granger, I would never stop you. Why, I think I'll even take you to the destination, myself." He said patronizingly.

"That won't be necessary,"

"Ah, but I insist."

"Just stop it," she snapped angrily. '_Perhaps I could get angry enough to do magic by accident. The way Harry blew up his aunt.'_

But she knew her magic was not the sort to break out of control. Hell, if that was possible, Draco would most probably have found himself floating somewhere in exosphere, by now.

She continued more quietly, "we both know that you are not here by accident and that you aren't some fairy godmother who's supposed to make my trips comfortable. But I am warning you. Lay one hand on me and…"

"And what? The heavens would burst forth for your deliverance?" he challenged.

"I'll fight you," it sounded ridiculous even to her

It wasn't surprising therefore that he burst out laughing,

"Charming, truly charming your defiance; is that how you trapped my son? With your charming stupidity?"

He continued savagely, "I always knew that the likes of you could never leave a lasting impression. But I was worried, you know, after all, mudbloods are known for their tricky vile ways. I was afraid, therefore, very afraid but my son passed the test." He finished apparently satisfied.

Could Draco have known? Could he have deliberately set her up? But that was ridiculous if Draco had wanted her caught, he would have had her bound and gagged the moment he had seen her in the tower room.

"Now, let's decide what we have to do. I will have to bind you to me, so that there is no chance of you losing your way and I am afraid we will have to go together, using the Floo. It's rarely done nowadays, as it gives too many knocks and cuts but we will have to manage."

"What about Draco? Aren't you going to take him back too?" it wasn't just curiosity that made her ask, she was trying to stall him for more time… _'For what?'_ her mind panicked.

"Shouldn't you be worried about yourself?" he snapped.

He spoke again laying out the plan that had formed in his mind, ever since the events at Shawcross Hall. "Draco will be just fine; especially since he will never see you again. He has some teenage rebellion still left in him, childish, if you ask me. But I am going to humour him. I'll let him 'run away' for a little while; I'll let him believe that he has beaten his father for once. He'll get tired soon enough and he will come back."

He added as an after thought. "Especially since all the aurors will be searching for him after your unfortunate disappearance."

"You are going to blame it on him?" she asked disbelievingly. Of course there were more things that she should have been worried about, her life for instance. But she found herself more interested in what was going to happen presumably after her so called disappearance.

"Blame? Mudblood. It would be a matter of honour. You are after all a very special mudblood. He would rise quickly through the ranks of death eaters to become one of dark lord's most favoured ones." He approached her as he spoke and she stumbled back from him, closer to the fireplace.

"You're…" she stuttered coming to a stop as her glance fell on the doorway and at Draco, who had come in quietly, un announced. He had heard but a few words of his father but he had got the general gist of his father's plan.

He felt tired and worn out and above all miserable.

"Father," he said quietly.

Before Lucius could register his surprise, Draco moved in front of Hermione.

_'This is the sort of bravado that Potter would pull. Bloody hell, I wonder how many house points this would be worth. '_ Some vague thought flitted through Draco's head.

"You should have locked the door," Draco said, reproachfully

Lucius answered after a split second of hesitation, "you can't, if you try magically, it sets off an alarm," "you should know that," he added.

"Right," said Draco for lack of a better word.

_'What the hell are they both doing?'_ Hermione wondered. When she had seen him, she had been surprised and simultaneously worried. Surprised at why he had come back and worried about what he was going to do.

If she had expected them to fall at each other's neck the moment they saw each other, (either in anger or love) she was mistaken. They sounded like two strangers discussing the weather.

"Draco," said Lucius softly "look, I'll just take this mudblood away and then we can…"

I…I can't let you do that father," Draco cut in.

"Really and why is that?" asked Lucius, angrily.

"I have a proposition," said Draco, avoiding the question.

"My son has a proposition to offer me?" he asked scornfully. "Let's hear it then."

"Let her go, and I'll do anything you want." He said resolutely.

"Anything?" asked Lucius.

"Anything," affirmed Draco. "I'll…I'll take the dark mark, become a death eater, do anything you want if you just let her go."

"Draco," it was a shocked exclamation on Hermione's part. It wasn't the dread of what he was proposing to do, that surprised her but the fact that he would actually do it to save her life sounded highly unbelievable.

"I don't believe this," said Lucius. "YOU ARE STILL THINKING ABOUT THIS STINKING MUDBLOOD."

Hermione flinched at his words and unknowingly backed further away. She fumbled with the Floo pouch in her hand, nervously, and some of the dust fell from the pouch into the fire.

The two Malfoys were however too busy to notice it.

"IT'S NOT ABOUT HER, FATHER," shouted back Draco.

"Then what is it?" asked Lucius drawing forward. He had noticed to his disapproval that Draco did have his wand in his hand and though he wasn't pointing it at him, he did not like it. Surprise, he had to take Draco by surprise. It would be easier and he could give him hell later for fooling around with a mudblood and trying to ruin his own life.

The pouch was open now and she let the dust fall into the fire very slowly. She was trembling with the thrill of what she was trying to achieve. She had thought wrong when she had felt the only escape from the room was the door; they could still escape through the Floo. She did not dare to look back at the fire but she knew it must now be ready.

"Doesn't matter, fact is, if you let her go, I'll do whatever you want." Draco repeated stubbornly. He had dreaded this confrontation, this moment when he would have to try and explain his jumbled reasoning to his father and to himself.

That's why he had preferred to run.

"No," snapped Lucius.

"Father…"

"NO, DRACO. THIS IS NOT SOME BROOMSTICK THAT YOU HAVE SET YOUR HEART ON. IT'S A BLODDY MUDBLOOD."

_'Right, now all I have to do is, somehow, grab Draco from right under his father's nose. It shouldn't be difficult, especially since, Lucius Malfoy despises me and would probably kill me, the moment I touch his son.'_ her thoughts weren't all that comforting.

"I told you it's not about her, I want you to prove who is more important."

"Get out of the way, Draco." snapped Lucius, advancing forward.

"NO," shouted Draco. He lifted his wand reflexively but knew that he wasn't actually going to be able to match his father.

Lucius turned his gaze surprisingly enough at Hermione. His face was filled with revulsion and loathing as he said,

"You are the cause of this."

He lifted his wand and Hermione knew that it would be aimed at her and nothing but the most unforgivable curse would issue from it and that she was going to end up dead. Facts of the situation filled her head, fear being only secondary.

What happened next was a blur filled with extreme clarity, if such a thing was possible.

The door swung open and Duncan came barging into the room.

Lucius, forgetting all, turned around, surprised at the intrusion.

And Hermione to her own surprise had been able to act in that split second. Her head had screamed _'now,'_ and she had been able to grab Draco by his arm, pull him stumbling back with her into the fire and, even as Lucius let out a livid roar, say stuttering "D…Diagon Alley."

As the room dissolved, the last thing she saw was a flash of blinding green light.

Hear all,

My darling little knight has been moved to a place where it is most needed. To bear the brunt of my parents' reaction when they get my marks for the latest exam. So you can instead directly tell me. There's a lot of stuff left unresolved here, which hopefully will be wrapped up in the next chapter.

I know I shouldn't make you people wait for so long but I had the most awful starting problem (I always have a starting block). Once I begin writing, I can finish a chapter in two days flat but to begin…that is the greatest problem.

The only antidote to such a problem…Review, for a review (filled with either oodles of flattery or jelly fish like criticism or more safely something in between) is a wonderful thing.

I'll try and clear whatever doubts you have in the next chapter. Till then, review!

Kshetra


	18. Lost & Found

Chapter 19: Lost and Found

Diagon alley looked almost deserted that evening. With the attack on Hogwarts and subsequent removal of the boy who lived to that place, a night curfew had been ordered there. The few people left on the streets were all hurrying home.

Harry walked behind Professor Dumbledore; letting his words wash over him. The quiet reassuring words, no longer meant anything to him. She was gone just like that…no goodbyes and he had already lost hope of seeing her again.

Ron, on the other hand…

"What do you mean by, you don't know where she is? You can surely find her. She has her wand. The smallest spell and it would register as underage magic," he cut in angrily.

Dumbledore paused and turned to face them. _'I should have told them before,'_ the reproach had been gnawing on him for a while. However, he had hoped in spite of the facts that she would be found, that her name wouldn't be added to the list of causalities.

Quietly he removed her broken wand from his pockets and held it out.

XXX

It was over almost as soon as it had begun; her body was bruised all over and she had suffered many a painful jabs, but she was worried about something else.

The green light…the killing curse. She was alive and that would mean…

She was afraid to let go of the vice like grip that she had around his neck. Afraid that if she opened her eyes and looked at him he might be…

"Bloody hell, Granger. How much do you weigh? Could you please get your knee off my wind pipe?"

It was his complaining obnoxious tone.

" You are not dead," she said delighted, pulling away just a little, to look at him.

He was trying unsuccessfully to untangle himself from her, frowning at her happiness. _'Why the bloody hell does she have to sound so happy about it? Stupid, stupid mudblood, all this mess because of her.'_ He thought savagely.

"Now that you know how dead I am not, can you please get off me?" he said finally. He was becoming acutely aware of her warm body, pressed against him and he would be damned if he did anything stupid.

She pushed herself away from him, talking nine to dozen. She was too happy to take offence by his words and his scowl did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm.

"I can't believe that the two of us got through in a single Floo. I have read about it, of course... multiple flooing. But it's rarely done these days, too many concussions." She prattled on.

" And did you see how the green light flashed? He must have used the killing curse. But, of course, it wouldn't work. You need much more concentration to perform it and it taxes enormously on your magic. He could have hit any of us, luckily..."

"Why isn't that a wonderful piece of information, Granger." Draco cut in bitterly. I am so glad to now know that my father could have killed me."

He pulled himself up, crossly and stepped out of the fireplace. His head was throbbing from where it had hit the mantle and it was a while before he realized that he wasn't in the Diagon Floo Hub.

He stared at the stacks of wands adorning the walls, vaguely aware that he had been here before.

Hermione stepped out after him, her apology lost in surprise, as she took in their surrounding.

_"Where in the world?"_

"May I help you," a soft voice greeted them from afar.

Even as Draco tried to find his wand, a small man with a pale face, stepped out from the shadows.

"Mr Ollivander," gasped Hermione.

XXX

"Ah, so you were trying to get to the Diagon Floo Hub?" asked Mr Ollivander, as he moved towards the entrance of the shop.

"Yes, but we ended up…here," said Hermione. She was still dazed to find herself greeted by Mr Ollivander and not the usual, bear hug of Diagon's mascot, the disgruntled yeti.

Draco shook his head in exasperation at her words and asked briskly,

"And the question is, why are we here?"

Mr Ollivander smiled as he answered, "It's a test package being tried out by the Diagon Floo. Tell me, did you lose your wand."

"Mine was broken," exclaimed Hermione. "But Draco's…"

"Lost it," cut in Draco abruptly. He had found much to his chagrin that his wand had been lost during the Floo.

"Careless of you to lose it. A wand is a tricky thing to lose, it rarely happens; it will show up. It explains, of course, why the two of you were flooed in here. They're trying to use a new Floo test package there, more tuned to the customer's needs. You didn't have your wands and so you got deflected to a place where it was easy for you to buy them."

"Well, it was wrongly assumed, wasn't it?" cut in Draco angrily. "I wanted to go to the Floo Hub and I get deflected to this stupid place. We're leaving,"

He strode off, banging the door behind him.

Ollivander waved Hermione's apology away.

"It's alright. The test Floo is, in fact, pretty bad. You had better come back later for your wand."

As Hermione hurried out of the shop she heard quite distinctly Mr Ollivander mutter, "Oak and dragon string, obnoxious but not necessarily bad."

XXX

"Did you have to be so rude?" she asked once she was outside.

"Would my answer in anyway avert the nagging lecture that you are going to give now?"

" I wasn't going to…look, Draco, I am sorry about…" she stuttered, wildly groping for the right words. She knew she had been tactless, when she had spoke of the earlier incident. Draco had always been touchy where his father was concerned and of course now…

"Don't be," quipped Draco. "It's not your fault, you were born."

She wanted to scream in frustration. He was being irritating on purpose, and she had to keep her temper.

He spoke up abruptly,

"Granger, let's just forget the whole thing. You are in Diagon alley now. We had a deal remember. I kept my part of the bargain and now it's your turn. Go back to your darling friends. Tell them what you will, but leave my father out of it."

"Draco please…"

The words were left hanging mid air, as Hermione suddenly froze, her eyes widening with recognition. Then with a sudden cry of delight, Hermione bounded down the street.

Draco's fears of Hermione's sudden and violent lunacy were laid to rest, as he made out in the distance, the familiar bemused four eyes being nearly, toppled to the ground by Hermione's wild charge.

He caught sight of Dumbledore who was staring at him in complete bafflement.

He sighed as he realized there was no getting out of the situation and then did the next best thing.

He cleared his throat affectedly, thus catching both Harry and Ron's attention, before he drawled,

"If it isn't the sappiest reunion ever,"

Oh yes, he was going to make it ten times worse for them.

XXX

I know it is a very short chapter and not my best but I needed to fill the gaps and the next, which should hopefully be the last, will be better.

I am so sorry to have kept you all waiting for so long. But I had (have) a Himalayan size workload to deal with and a hectic school schedule that rarely leaves me any time.

Also, a heartfelt thank you, to that perfectly wonderful angel, who thought of nominating 'Not Quite The Knight In Shining Armour', for 'The Dangerous Liaisons Awards.' It felt terribly nice to be liked.

Review!

Kshetra

Trivia: 'Draco' is the scientific name of the 'flying lizard.' It sure broke the monotony of zoology class, and I was in fits of laughter imagining Draco's expression if he realized, he shares his name with a lizard. Of course, the fact that I was in fits of laughter imagining a fictional characters expression speaks a lot of my mental status.


	19. Many Meetings

Chapter Nineteen: Many Meetings 

The effect was immediate. Weasel could only stare at him in surprise and Potter's smile slipped into a grimace.

As for Granger, he was trying very hard not look at her. He had a feeling that if he looked at her, he might just be compelled to act upon the childish urge of catching her by her shoulders and shaking her, until her teeth rattled.

It was just that he hated her so much. That and the fact that she had no right being so absurdly happy at seeing her friends; so bloody lost in the euphoria that she had completely forgotten him.

Draco Malfoy did not like being ignored, especially for two sodding gits, on whom she had practically thrown herself.

"Now, now, don't let my presence stop you; Continue by all means. You were especially warming up there, Weasel with your pledges of undying love and Potter if …"

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Surprise was giving way to age-old hostility and Ron was already reaching for his wand.

_It was too easy,_ Draco thought as he watched Ron's dark expression.

"Why don't you ask your girlfriend," he said bluntly.

Two pairs of doubting eyes turned towards Hermione, who, much to Draco's satisfaction cringed visibly.

"I think," said Dumbledore, who had been watching the exchange quietly " it is best, if we were to all go back inside. The curfew will be put in force in a matter of minutes. You will come with us, will you not, Draco?" he enquired pleasantly.

"Do I have a choice," scoffed Draco. He had been looking forward to a fight, but the old fool had spoiled it. Potter and Weasley looked angry enough but they would not do anything before their revered professor.

Dumbledore was peering at him over his half moon spectacles and for some reason it made Draco feel quite ill at ease.

"I would like to believe, Mr Malfoy, that you have _chosen_ to come here," said Dumbledore simply.

He wanted to scream that he had no choice; that it was all Hermione's fault but he was already planning his escape; that was all that mattered. Swallowing his pride, he stalked off after the bunch of morons.

XXX

_Escape…escape from the saccharine sweet bunch of Dumbledore worshippers…_that was his only hope.

It was for this reason, that he sat quietly listening to Hermione fumble over their wonderful roundabout journey from the point '_Draco saved me'_. Draco stifled a grin at the thought. Oh no! She hadn't used those words.

Still Draco grudgingly reflected that she had kept her word for most parts and there were no mentions of vampires, lunatic fathers or of kisses in the flooing room. This time a wicked grin spread over his face.

He wondered whether it would be worth cutting into her explanation to pointedly ask her to mention their '_moment of deeper understanding'_. But he had to drop the idea. No matter how wonderful it would have been to see Hermione's discomfort or the two morons expression, it would be giving Hermione a reason to rattle about his father…he could not do that, no matter what had happened.

It was , however, becoming painfully clear that her explanation would not be enough. She had not had the time to rehearse and she had to thread carefully rearranging the truth, omitting large parts, filling in the gaps, in fact distorting the story completely. There were too many loose ends to the story and Dumbledore was sure to spot them.

When her narration ended, however, Dumbledore asked her nothing. He sat staring into the fire fingering his beard.

As the silence lengthened, Hermione risked a glance at her friends and wasn't surprised to see Ron almost bursting with doubts. Harry, on the other hand was staring at Draco as if he had never seen him before in his life.

She had been afraid to look at any of them during her narration and her eyes had more than once failed to meet Dumbledore's ever-penetrating gaze.

She stole a glance at Draco next who was sitting at the far corner of the room, close to the large windows staring out idly. 

He had tried to appear unconcerned about the whole affair but she knew he had listened and it had been important to him that she left his father out of it, which brought her back to the guilt of lying to the greatest wizard alive and her two best friends.

"Hermione," Dumbledore's grave voice broke through Hermione's reverie. She looked up dreading the flurry of questions that would surely follow.

"You have been extremely lucky and brave for the last few days. I had hoped for your safety. I had tried to track you down, but without your wand…" he broke off and shook his head as if trying not to even think through the sentence.

"I am glad I was wrong." He added with a smile.

"And," he sounded amused as he said it, " I believe it's thanks to you," he looked at Draco, who turned away from the window slowly, as if bored.

"Stole Potter's thunder, didn't I? Must be difficult for you to believe, " Hermione recognized the all-familiar drawl.

"I must say it is surprising." Said Dumbledore; it was a blunt reply, very uncharacteristic of the headmaster, and Hermione stared in surprise.

Dumbledore, on his part, turned his attention completely on Hermione. " You must be very tired, I'll have Tom set up a room for you. Once you feel up to it, you can come down for dinner where your friends can badger you for details. Will that do, Mr Weasley?" Hermione turned to look at Ron, who had been staring at Draco with keen distrust. At Dumbledore's words, he started, seemed ready to argue, but then nodded in submission.

"But…" spluttered Hermione turning to face Dumbledore. "Is that all? Don't …don't you have doubts, I mean, questions."

She knew quite well that Draco must be telepathically screaming at her to shut up but the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"You have told me everything, correct?" asked Dumbledore gravely.

"I…yes," she could feel the heat rise up to her face.

"Go then," Dumbledore said quietly.

Hermione Granger left the room feeling very small.

XXX

Hermione had been right, Draco had been listening with the closest attention, and even as Hermione left, followed by her two friends, he knew the real interview was only beginning.

He sat back staring out of the window, his feet drawn up underneath him, his face set in a scowl; he fit the mental image that Dumbledore always had of him.

But if what Hermione had said, held even a glimmer of truth then… 

Dumbledore continued to stare at Draco speculatively, until Draco fed up with the oppressive silence and suspense glared at Dumbledore as he said,

"Well, what now?"

Dumbledore didn't react to the question; he turned to look at the fire and seemed lost in his thoughts. Then with a sudden grim determination, he got up and leaning close to the fire, said, "I hope my owl found you in time, if you are there, come in."

The thought flashed through Draco's head at once; the old bat was calling some ministry official to hand him over.

He sprang up from his chair; his first impulse was of course to run for the door.

He stopped mid-flight, however, when his housemaster stepped forward from the fire, dusting off soot and glaring at him.

XXX

Serverus Snape was actually glaring at professor Dumbledore.

"Was it really necessary that I be present visibly during this interview?" he said, his voice sounding strangled as it came through his clenched teeth.

Draco stared at him with a mixture of distrust and fear. Though he had no real evidence, he'd always figured that Snape had been part of his father's _old gang_. It really had been one of the best things about Hogwarts really. No one could do Potter bashing better than Serverus Snape. But that was before---before he had the madcap idea to do really stupid potentially life ending things; before he had pissed off his father.

He really didn't want to think about that.

"Serverus, glad you could join us. I trust you are feeling better now," Dumbledore said, choosing to ignore Snape's question.

He turned towards Draco and continued amiably obtuse, "Draco, do please stop backing away towards the door. It will get you nowhere. Besides, is this the way to greet your professor? I do not think he takes kindly to it and I still have to convince him to be your guardian."

Some people said Dumbledore had a dark sense of humour, but the two in the room were far too surprised to enjoy it.

"What," the pair of voices cried out in unison. All the ill will in the room was transferred on to Dumbledore who looked mildly surprised.

"All in good time, sit down the both of you---perhaps I could get tom to whip up some of his lemon sherbets. I hate to admit it but they are better than mine."

"Have you gone utterly insane?" shouted Draco. Though he had always thought of Dumbledore as a daft old man, he was slightly shocked at finding him exactly befitting his words.

"Don't you have the slightest idea as to who he is?" demanded Draco, furiously.

"He is…" he began dramatically, but couldn't say the word. The word was stuck in his throat and though more theatrical descriptions such as '_minion of the dark lord_' flashed through his head, it just wouldn't come out.

It wasn't only the thought of all the nasty things that Serverus Snape, if his secret were revealed, could do; but also the cold realization that if he spilled that bit of information that would be the final blow. He would be firmly taking a side then; the side of supposed good, the side of light-- Potter's side. _That_ caused him to shudder.

"He is…" he began again rather desperately.

Dumbledore was looking at him now, not the way he usually did; a keen penetrating glance as if he was reading what was inside his head.

His face broke into a smile and he finished Draco's statement simply, "a death eater?"

It took a while for the words to sink in and even then, it didn't really hit him directly. He felt a vaguely sickening thought fill his head, and he tried to think of something that would counteract that. but the truth had sunk its fangs into his shocked state and the thought resounded dully in his brain.

_A spy then, for the light in Voldemort's circle_

He felt oddly betrayed.

Though, he wouldn't have liked it, he would have found Snape's attempts to blow him into smithereens perfectly natural; he would have preferred Snape as a power hungry, vicious death eater than a spy.

It would mean for the last six years, the man had been just acting; Acting at being the only teacher at Hogwarts to actually sympathize with the Slytherins. All his verbal attacks on the Gryffindors' – an act.

His favourite teacher was reduced to being a Potter loving, undercover spy for light.

_Probably worships the pants off Potter,_ he thought glumly.

He was deeply mortified…and angry.

Dumbledore was watching the boy with keen interest. He had risked more in the last five minutes in letting Draco know about Snape, than he had in a long time. Though, he did not realize it, Draco had passed the first major test at gaining Dumbledore's trust. If Draco had remained cool even after seeing Severus, Dumbledore would have written him off as a spy. It could have meant the end of Snape's stay in Voldemort's inner circle if not the world. But he had reacted and Dumbledore wanted to know how he would handle this new revelation.

"Draco?" he asked accordingly.

Draco started slightly then his glance turned towards Serverus, who too had been watching him quietly.

"So, you're a two faced lying traitor?" Malice resonated from every word.

If Snape was taken aback at the words he didn't show it, he looked at him coolly as he said,

"Among other things,"

XXX

The Bronze Painted Stainless Steel Knight stands guard, the author peeps out from behind for a second. Gets a dozen howlers and two oddly matched shoes, realizes everyone is pissed with her for not updating for so long. Tries to explain about life being a bitch, about having to make potentially life ruining decisions, moving to college, and adapting to new place and people. Realizes everyone finds it too boring. Therefore Grins sheepishly and leaving behind last will and testament, in the armour plate of the Knights steps out into the open and bellows

HELLO TO ONE & ALL…LOVELY TO BE BACK.

As you can see my story is of course now AU, but I do plan to finish it according to my original idea. Hopefully, there are still people who are willing to read this. I had hoped to round it off in one chapter but I am too tempted to put this up. The twentieth chapter will definitely be the ending and hopefully all your questions will be answered.

I also have to say a big thanks to all those who kept reviewing and telling me to write…it really was you guys who made me want to write…vla1diva, Amortentia, ali-lou, Stephanie, delyn, Redlightspin, paprika90, paris97, crazyboy 88, the lady of the four leafed (you must be the first to tell me my grammar is good !), darkhunterlover, unspeakable may, the fuzzy llama, Herphagonassyphilitis (oh, I didn't hate the 6th book, it was just that it made my fic Au) , Racetrack's Goil, Jaid Ziaen, luckybear101, decembergirl, atruwriter, tearzofhate, all apologies, Anime-Fab, Riles (Aha! Have successfully foiled your plans for murder for the moment…loved your review!), vidushi (Delhi? Neat city …Bad people (grins). As for my name (which could be my penname or real (winks) I think I'd prefer to say it comes from the Sanskrit word kshetram meaning temple or field or body. Nothing wrong with kurukshetra , but tends to remind me of the gory war…oh and SHAHRUKH is Guy 2, Saif was Guy one:-)

And now please do review…

Kshetra


	20. And Reasons Why Part I

CHAPTER TWENTY Part I 

"So why did you do it, save Ms. Granger's life that is?" Dumbledore began simply. He stared at the sullen boy who had thrown himself back on his armchair after he had got over the first shock of seeing his housemaster.

"I did what was right, noble and good, and you ask me why? I am deeply insulted!" said Draco. He made no attempt to mask his contempt; he was determined to make this interview as difficult as possible.

"You did what was right, noble and good, but surely for not those reasons?" Dumbledore's voice was still amiable, despite the words.

"I am not going to sit here and explain myself just to earn your favours!" Draco snapped. "Granger told you what happened, and if you do not believe her, then…"

"But I do believe her," cut in Dumbledore gently. "I believe she has told me the truth for most parts, and yet she has let things slip by unsaid for some reason. Now correct me if I am wrong, Mr Malfoy, but the reason is you."

It was too close to the truth for comfort, and Draco was on his feet as he spluttered angrily.

"Oh yes, I threatened and tortured her into lying in your august presence."

"Don't be absurd, Draco." Snape said in a low voice. He had been watching the interview from where he stood near the fireplace. He'd kept as quiet as possible, ignoring Draco's glare which seemed reserved for him.

Draco might dislike Dumbledore, but Snape…Snape invited a whole new level of revulsion. He screwed up his face as he shouted,

"Don't you dare talk to me, you…"

"Now…now…" interrupted Dumbledore jovially, " that's no way to talk to your new guardian."

Both Draco and Snape started, and all the ill will in the room was again transferred unto Dumbledore

"Albus, you shall explain at once as to why in Merlin's name, you keep throwing that word at me," said Snape. He tried to glare down at Draco, who was muttering in not so quiet whisper what he thought of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore seemed to grow serious all at once. He said wearily, "I know it is sudden for both of you. But we must act as quickly as possible. Severus you must remember that Draco is still underage. Lucius Malfoy can legally determine where Draco should be sent."

"He is an escaped convict, Albus. Surely it will be impossible for him to take Draco away."

"Ah, but lawyers, Severus. You forget that it would be perfectly legal for Lucius' lawyers as his representatives to take the boy away and put him under what they consider appropriate guardianship. It is not difficult to imagine what appropriate in this case would be."

Draco sat down, as his legs suddenly felt like they'd been cursed with jelly leg. Draco had to make an effort, not to put his head in hands and groan loudly as the implication of Dumbledore's words hit him. Draco could see the sort of people he'd be sent to. Worse, he was quite sure it would involve seeing his father at some point in the near future and the thought terrified him. Sure, he had stood up to his father in a moment of brilliant lunacy but to see him again…

"Surely someone else can take this responsibility? Albus, if this has anything to do with the way I felt about Narcissa…"

"Felt about Narcissa?" Draco cut in, ashen faced and disgusted. "Excuse me while I go get sick"

"Not like that," snapped Snape, but he seemed a little flustered, by the fact that he had been foolish enough to mention it before Draco.

It wasn't lost on Draco, who said in a gagging voice, "I think I am going to be mentally scarred forever."

Dumbledore cut in before, Snape could cut Draco down, " I have thought of this, Severus. There is the matter of Draco's safety. Placing him in your care is a risky proposition but I am convinced that he would be the safest with you. Voldemort needs you to remain at my side, he would hardly jeopardize that by having Draco attacked when I have entrusted his safety to you; too suspicious for your position. It would be temporary this protection as once Draco turns seventeen we could easily provide him with some alternative."

Snape didn't argue, even though it was obvious he was not pleased with the solution being trust on him. Draco had no qualms of showing his protest however.

"I don't care." Draco spat out. "Surely, there's someone else."

Dumbledore seemed to consider his request for a while, before he said with a sigh

"Well, there is someone else I could ask."

Snape seemed surprised at this. Surely, Dumbledore wouldn't change his plans specifically for the boy; and even if Snape did not wholly agree with it, he had grudgingly accepted its logic.

Draco was however obviously pleased.

"Thank god!" Draco said with a theatrical shudder as if he was getting rid of an awful memory.

"It would be a little sudden, but…"

"No one would refuse your request. You're Dumbledore!" Draco flicked his wrist in the air, as if he was conjuring up the name by magic.

"Draco…" Snape began warningly, but Dumbledore said with a smile.

"It's quite all right, Severus. It's not their refusal that I am afraid of, it is whether you would agree, Draco."

"Of course I'll agree. Anything is better than him." Draco said contemptuously. He knew he was baiting Snape, trying to get Snape to react, but Snape seemed to have perfected the act of appearing seemingly deaf to Draco's taunts and jibes, and remained silent.

"It would be a little crowded," Dumbledore continued.

"I love crowds!" Draco said with an overdose of enthusiasm.

" And you would have to adjust,"

"I would absolutely love adjusting!"

Snape had to hastily conceal his snort with a cough. He was determined not to interfere with whatever Dumbledore was planning, but the statement was the height of audacity

"In that case," Dumbledore said with a smile. "I will ask Molly Weasley."

Perhaps, Dumbledore had meant it as a joke. A harmless jab to bring the insolent boy down a peg or two. But an extraordinary change seemed to have come over the boy. He looked, as if he had been visibly struck.

He stood up, his fingers clenching into fists at his side. He said in a tight whisper.

" Father was right. You're a manipulative bastard."

"Draco, mind your words." Snape said sharply. Dumbledore however stayed quiet, looking keenly at Draco.

"I am right. You get a sick twisted pleasure, don't you? Making others suffer?" Draco said ignoring Snape.

"Draco," Dumbledore began gently. "I merely want what is best for…"

"Oh yes!" Draco cut in angrily. "Of course that is your excuse. You are doing what's right, aren't you and lo! The mighty Dumbledore could do no wrong in the process."

"You don't know what you are talking about." Snape said quietly. The boy seemed too angry as if something else was simmering beneath his outburst.

"I know plenty. Tell me, Sir," he said mockingly. "Do you remember Duncan Idanov?" not forgotten him, have you? Or his family? Was what you did for the best for the right?"

Snape was surprised that Draco brought him up. He remembered Duncan from Hogwarts of course but he had died a long time ago and to Draco to bring him up; what possible connection could Dumbledore have with this?"

Dumbledore seemed a little taken aback at Draco and it was a while before he said,

"I cannot justify my past actions. I…I have not always been right. But…I have tried to do what seemed best in a situation. I believe you will be safest with Severus; we shall discuss the arrangements tomorrow.

It was an abrupt ending to the discussion, quite uncharacteristic of Dumbledore and Draco seemed to see this as his victory and he stomped off with a smirk.

Once the door shut, Snape looked at Dumbledore intently. He wasn't quite sure what had just happened, and he was curious to know even though he didn't think Dumbledore would give him a straight answer.

"He isn't really off the mark, you know." Dumbledore said with a tired smile in the end.

"What do you mean, professor?" Snape asked quietly.

" I have hardly been infallible, and on many occasions-lo the mighty Dumbledore has been quite a fool indeed."

Hello?

Well, this has been a long time. I wonder if anyone is still interested in reading this. It seems weird to be writing this…after so long. Especially since the seventh book ended and that epilogue…I better not start ranting on that.

I hate to give excuses to all you wonderful people who were reading this fanfiction, if I bugged you by stopping. I hate it when an author does that and rightly so. But life…can be an utter drama queen sometimes. I changed tracks. Decided I wanted to do law (that's right, I am going to be soul-selling lawyer. I am still going through the stage where I get a kick out of saying I am going to be a soul selling lawyer.) And moved far away, dorm room, no Internet, noisy roommate and Bloody Awful Amount Of Work. (I am developing muscles in my shoulders carrying just my normal course books.) and so on …more bla. At the same time I was torn with what to do with this work. It meant something to me – with all its mistakes and imperfections, it was my first piece of fanfiction, my first-born…and abandoning it broke my heart.

Especially since only a chapter was left. Ah well I began to write again, and I know this isn't long enough to be called a proper chapter, but I just had to put it up. Part two…should follow in a while and that is hopefully the end. I know I keep saying that…but there.

I want to thank all the wonderful people who kept urging me to write; it helped me post this even though it is very late in coming.


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